A Wanderer at heart

by Akashru

Imagine a story where a smart Ash exists. One who does not want to become a pokemon master in the conventional way but just wants to travel. Explore the world, find new pokemon, research. This is the story of that Ash with a non traditional starter. AU , this does not share much if anything at all with cannon except for the main character's name and the pokemon world itself.

1. Chapter 1 The journey begins

A wanderer at heart – A Pokemon Fanfiction

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

A.N: Sorry for starting with an Author's note. I am just an avid reader of pokemon fanfiction and as the saying goes, if you really badly want to read a fanfiction and it is not written, then write it yourself. So well, here's my attempt.

I also wanted to mention that any reviews about the grammar or language are appreciated since I am trying to improve my language skills. Apart from that, some things in this story will be different. They will be explained but for the most part, a lot of the stuff in the fanfiction should seem similar. It does not follow canon in any manner except for the world and the name of the main character. (AU)

Chapter 1

It was a pleasant morning. It was still early and he was glad that he got up on time. Checking his travel plans again had lasted very late last night. He freshened up and went down. He wished his mother good morning while meeting her for his breakfast.

She was fussing over him "You are going out from today. Have you taken everything? Call me everyday …." but he was lost in his own world already planning on most of his major pokemon. He was imagining himself travelling around the world with his Venasaur peacefully. He snapped out of his trans to listen to his mother's last words "..to change your underwear every day." This made him blush red and Ash said "Mom, I'm a little grown up now and I will remember that. You don't have to remind me of that everytime I go out. It is embarrassing."

His mother looked at him with a sad wistful look on her face and a small smile saying "I'll miss you a lot Ashy. You'll always be my little boy no matter how much grow. I will always be your mom and remind you. Anyway, it's getting late. Check your inventory once again and then go to Samuel's lab to get your pokemon. I'll meet you there."

Ash nodded and went up to do his inventory check. He was travelling into the wilds and did not want to stick close to major cities. So he needed a lot of food which he had in a special compartment, a few potions, a few berries that he had collected, an antidote just to be safe, his camping gear in another storage compartment, two huge water canteens which were in another storage compartment and a poke-gear which would help him keep in touch with his mother even out in the wilderness. His outfits were also there and packed.

Finally satisfied with his gear, he wore his backpack and went downstairs. He could hear his mom washing the dishes in the kitchen and shouted to her "Mom, I'm heading out to the Oaks. I will wait there for you to see me off or if you are not there then I'll come home and see you before I leave."

Hearing his mom's acknowledgement, he went on to the Oak's lab. He was excited to get his first pokemon and head out. Lost in his dreams, he kept walking when before long he reached the boundary fences of the Oak ranch. He was always amazed by the ranch. It was so huge. A huge expanse of grassland type land structure with a lot of thick trees guarding it at the edges. These are home to a large amount of clearings and small ponds and one huge lake whose sprinkling blue could be seen peeking through the thicket of trees. It was amazing and home to a huge number of pokemon.

He finally made it to the door of the lab. He knocked and waited. The lab door was opened by an assistant named Julia. She said "Come in Ash. The others are already here. They are waiting in the lab."

Ash scratched the back of his head and asked her "Am I late. I thought I was on time. Did I keep the professor waiting too long?"

Julia smiled and waved his concerns away saying "Na Ash, you are on time. It's just that the others were too excited and came early. The professor hasn't arrived yet. Come in."

Ash nodded his head and thanked her. He slowly walked to the lab. He had been to the lab many times and knew his way around. The assistants were slowly starting to trickle in with two people already there. Julia was walking with him and he asked her "So how come you are early today. Usually you arrive around 10 AM. Today its only 8 30 AM and you are already here?"

"The professor needed some help with the pokemon. There are only three of the typical starter pokemon and four people starting." Hearing this Ash tensed since he was now not sure he would get his bulbasaur. "He needed some way around it and also needed help setting up the various paperwork and items required to set you off as trainers. So he called me and Alan early to assist him since we are dealing with this part of the work in our training to be a pokemon professor."

Seeing as they reached the lab, Ash nodded to her. He just entered to hear "And look who is here! The late guy finally deigns to join us. I am surprised you got up in time to go out."

Ash never wanted to hear Gary's taunt as the first thing in the lab, but not everyone gets their wish. He replied "And a not so good morning to you too Gary.". He nodded to the other two trainers starting out with him and offered them a smile as they put on irritated faces at hearing Gary. The two of them were twins, Lily and Reynold who was known as Rey to most people since Reynold was a mouthful. They would probably be travelling together since they were somewhat incomplete without the other. Also both of them wanted to be Pokemon masters and were tired of listening to Gary constantly boasting.

The others barely returned the nod before Professor Oak entered and beckoned them to enter the other room. In the other room there was a podium with three pokeballs on them. Apart from the various machinery around the room, there was also a bag full of red slab like things that were called pokedexes. He was not usually allowed into this room and Ash took a look around with an interested eye.

Professor Oak said "Good morning everyone. Congratulations on beginning your pokemon journey today. I am happy that it's the four of you. I can be informal and not worry about the pokemon I am giving you. All four of you are promising students of mine. Thank God."

Rey laughed while Lily smiled at him blushing at the praise. Ash smiled at him while Gary said "Move on gramps, I'm waiting for my pokemon."

Oak looked at Gary and said "Gary, you will get your pokemon. Don't be so impatient. I swear, if I didn't know that you loved pokemon more than anything, I would probably not give you a pokemon due to that arrogant attitude of yours. I would fear for it." Gary scowled while Oak sighed looking at him. Oak said "Now, don't need to scowl kiddo. Here we go. Let's pick the pokemon. Now as you can see there are only three starter pokemon. Ash gets the fourth pokemon. It's not a traditional starter but just as good."

Ash just swallowed a lump at that. He did not get a good feeling but he knew that professor Oak would not intentionally harm him or set him back. He would only wish him good with how close their families were. So he nodded while putting on a brave face.

Oak continued "Before we pick your pokemon, each of you know what a pokedex is. If you don't by this point of time, then you should not be going out. Anyway, here is one for each of you. It's registered for you and is your identity."

Saying this he handed out a standard red coloured pokedex to all four of them while Julia watched from the side-lines. Then he said "Ok, pick a pokemon each kids, who is going first?"

Rey stepped forward saying "I'll go first prof." He picked a pokemon with a flame pattern on it and released a charmander. It was small and looked like a small orange lizard that stood on two legs with a flame on its tail. He bent down to its size to make himself seem smaller and asked "Do you think you want to come with me? I want to become a pokemon master and want to become the strongest trainer there is. If that is your aim, then you can come with me."

Charmander nodded and let out a small flame from its nostrils. Rey looked at it and nodded telling the professor that he had chosen. Seeing this, lily stepped forward as Rey and charmander stepped back with charmander walking alongside Rey. Lily repeated the procedure with bulbasaur.

As she stepped back Gary stepped forward and said "Finally. I get the pokemon that I wanted. This is awesome." Saying this, he picked the third pokeball. From this pokeball emerged a small turtle. He bent down and undergoing a 180 asked it "Hey, I am a young kid aiming to be one of the strongest trainers alive. I hold interest in a lot of things pokemon. And I love your species. I am going to travel to achieve those dreams. Are you interested in travelling with me?" Seeing squirtle nod, he rubbed its head and stepped back with squirtle walking with him.

All three of them turned towards the professor and Ash looking to see what Ash's pokemon was. The professor told them "Ash's pokemon is still on its way. You all can leave now if you want unless you want to wait for him."

The three of them looked a little sad for him at that. But they were too excited to begin their journey. Ash told them "Have fun on your journey people. You don't have to wait for me. Becoming a pokemon master is a tough task. I'll see you along the way somewhere." They clapped him on his back and Rey said "Don't worry Ash. You have our numbers. If you need us, call and we will do our best to help you." Lily nodded while Gary just snorted and said "I know you don't have the aim to become a pokemon master but damn Ash, I want to challenge you to a battle. I will battle you when I see you. You better not disappoint me."

Ash just smiled and nodded to them. They slowly went out with Ash and Oak following them to see them off. After waving them off, Ash turned to Oak and asked "Prof, when is my pokemon coming?"

Oak told Ash "Your pokemon is already here Ash. It is just a very rare pokemon. The less people who know what pokemon you have, the better. I don't trust Gary and the others not to blabber their mouth off at the wrong place if they knew your pokemon. You could be hunted for it."

Ash gulped and asked Oak "Which pokemon is it?"

Oak replied "It's a lapras Ash. It was separated as an egg with the rest of its pod hunted. They left these waters and now it's all alone. It is just ready and of fighting age. It is a traveller's dream pokemon. It loves travelling across water bodies. It is one of the strongest water type pokemon in the world but doesn't generally like fighting. It is also extremely intelligent."

Ash haled the professor mid lecture saying "Professor, I did read about lapras you know? Can I talk to the lapras?"

Oak handed Ash a pokeball. Ash silently released the pokeball. Out of that pokeball came a small blue pokemon that was about five feet tall. It was a blue pokemon with a long neck, a dinosaur of old type face and a hard shell on its back. It had four flippers instead of feet and huge eyes. It looked the picture of innocence as it gazed at him. Ash turned to it and said "I wanna travel the world and become strong enough to protect myself and my family from outsiders. Do you wanna travel with me?"

The lapras looked between Oak and Ash. Oak nodded to it and it slowly made its way to Ash and snuggled against him. Looking at him it nodded as it cooed at him in an affirmative. The intention could not have been clearer.

Ash returned lapras after letting her know and said "So that's that professor. Is there anything else?"

Oak nodded and said "Yes there is Ash. Looking at how rare the lapras is, you need to be careful about releasing lapras to the public until you are strong enough. Also stay away from too much of city battles unless you are strong enough. You do not want people to know you have a lapras. Absolutely."

Ash nodded saying "I'll take care professor. I'll be careful."

Oak said "Then that is all Ash. You can take care of yourself, you can take care of lapras and enjoy travelling around. This lapras is special but I will let you find out why it is special. Enjoy Ash." Saying this, Oak walked with Ash to the door. On the way to the door Ash said "I will give you a call when I get to viridian professor. Also, do you have any books on how to take care of water pokemon in general and lapras in particular?"

Oak slapped his forehead and said "I knew I was forgetting something. Wait I'll get it for you." Saying this Oak vanished inside the house leaving Ash near the door. Ash waited near the door for the professor to arrive. The professor came back with three discs in his hand. He said "One is on lapras in particular, another is just how to handle a pokemon from its almost baby stages to its adult form and the third is on water pokemon who cannot leave the water. Load them into your pokedex and return them." Ash did so and thanked Oak. Oak said "Well Ash, that's all. Have a good journey and let me know of what you have seen. I will get updates here on my computer but hearing about it live is always more interesting."

Ash nodded and said "Thank you prof. See ya later. I'll probably be leaving now after meeting mom."

Oak nodded once finally and went back to work. Ash went out to find his mom waiting for him. He slowly walked towards her and they started walking towards route one. She asked him "What pokemon did you get Ashy?" Ash said "I got a lapras mom. I'll show lapras to you once we are more secluded and near a pond." Delia nodded saying "Ok, but why the rare pokemon? Lapras is almost extinct. I'm surprised Sam is willing to give you one."

Ash replied saying "I am surprised as well. I definitely did not expect the prof to hand me one of the most hunted pokemon in the pokemon world as well as a traveller's friend. I definitely did not expect a lapras. There were four trainers leaving today but the professor had only three pokemon. Seeing as I wanted to travel he got me a lapras."

By this time, they reached a somewhat secluded pond. Ash released Lapras who looked between Ash and his mom. Ash introduced Lapras to his mother saying "Mom, this is lapras. Lapras, this is my mother. She is my family and from now on your family as well. Say hi."

Lapras while sitting near Ash's legs waved a flipper and cooed at Delia who by this time was scratching lapras behind it's horn on its head. Lapras bent its head slightly into her ministrations. Delia looked up at ash as she was doing this and said "So you are leaving now huh. I'm gonna miss you Ashy."

Ash swallowed a lump in his throat as he hugged his mother saying "Me too mom. But I wanna travel. I will call you whenever I can." She just ruffled his hair and said "Take care Ashy. Are you leaving now?"

Ash nodded as he slowly wiped away tears near his eyes. Lapras was watching all this with a puzzled look on its face. It slowly butted its head against Ash's chest. Ash looked at it and scratched it behind it's ears taking comfort from his pokemon. He looked up and told lapras he was returning it. Then he turned towards his mom and said "I'm leaving now mom. Take care of yourself. I will try to call you every night as signal permits." Delia nodded and he started walking towards route one. He turned back while waving to his mom as he slowly lost sight of her. She kept waving for as long as she could see him and once he was hidden by the trees she lowered her hand, had a sad look on her face and turned back to her now suddenly empty house.

ROUTE 1

Ash made his way through the trees to a lake that he knew was one hour away. He could not walk lapras since it could not walk. He also realised that he did not scan lapras at all. He knew that there were very small non aggressive pokemon till that lake and so thought that he would first talk to lapras near that lake. He walked along as the trees provided him shade from the sun that was now shining ferociously above his head. The thick trees were home to many pokemon and he could not wait to find out more. The sense of euphoria that he was finally travelling on his pokemon journey was coursing through his veins and pumping his blood. The only damper so to speak was lapras since he could not explore most of the land regions till she was grown enough since she would not be able to protect him till she could move on land.

He made it to the lake. He saw a small set rocks that are half submerged in the water and he went to sit on them with his legs in the water. He had already removed his shoes and other clothes and was wearing his swimming gear. He released his lapras who was smiling to be released in the water again. She shifted about a little to the left and the right and then looked up at him in a confused stare.

She was getting a slightly dejected feeling from him. He looked at her and said "A lapras huh. You know, I made a lot of plans for a bulbasaur. Although that was the pokemon I wanted, all the others also could move on land and my plans were flexible enough to adjust them. I never thought I'd get a pokemon that could not move on land as my first pokemon."

Lapras just looked at him a little confused and sad that he did not like it. Ash continued staring wistfully into the distance as he said "Now I'll have to change all my plans. It's going to be annoying. But hey, you are worth it, aren't you? I'm glad to have you. We can travel the world together." Saying this he looked at his pokemon and said "You need to get stronger. My ambition is to travel the world, but I can't do that without my pokemon protecting me and me protecting them. You are my starter, my first pokemon. And my lifelong friend. If I have to adjust to the challenges you present, then so be it. The only thing I ask in return for my love, respect and care is love, respect and hard work. I will train you hard till almost exertion. I just want you to work equally hard. It's my job to help you become the best you can be but it's your job to become the best you can be. Is that clear?"

Lapras nodded with a fire in its eye and a determined look on its face. It could feel the determination from Ash. Ash said "I will scan you now. The pokedex will tell me a little about you like your moves, gender etc." Seeing lapras nod, Ash reached for his bag and pulled out a pokedex. He scanned the lapras and it said "This is a Lapras. They are able to understand human speech and very intelligent, it loves to swim in the sea with people on its back. This Lapras is female and knows the moves Sing, Growl, Water-Gun, Mist and Dragon Dance. She can absorb water to regain health or heal herself of status effects. For more complete data, kindly check its information page."

Ash said "That's a pretty good move-set for a beginner pokemon. That fact that you already learnt mist is good. I'm surprised you know dragon dance. You probably had a seadra line or a dratini line parent. Now let's see your speed and strength. Also you need to grow bigger. I really need to read that lapras book. Anyway, here, I'm entering the me along as fast as you can."

Saying this Ash slowly got into the cool water. He held onto one of the spikes on Lapras's shell as she waited for his get go. Once he nodded to her, she swam one round around the lake as fast as she could. He told her "Now after dropping me back at that rock, do another round as fast as you can. I need to see the time difference."

Lapras nodded as she did that. He noted that she was significantly faster without him. He was heavy and also not really aerodynamic. She wasn't lifting him, she as dragging him through the water. It would slow her down but would work her muscles slowly. He then picked up a few rocks and told her "Ok, now I am going to throw these rocks. I want you to hit them with water gun as hard as you can." Seeing her nod again he lobbed the rocks one after the other in different directions and different speeds. She missed many but she hit a few and they were the slower ones.

He then sat down on the rock while he told her "You are still young obviously. You need to grow in strength and speed. You also need to get better aim for your water gun as well as better accuracy and power. So for now, we will work on hitting your water gun's accuracy, power and speed. Apart from this, we will be working on your speed, strength and endurance. The speed part will be laps around this lake, the strength part will be dragging me around this lake again in laps and the endurance part will be doing both at the top speed you can first, then once you are tired pacing yourself at the speed you are comfortable with."

He looked at lapras who nodded that she understood him. He continued saying "For your water gun training, I am going to get you to cast your water gun continuously at that rock. That should increase your strength and endurance. For your speed and accuracy, I will be lobbing rocks into the sky over the lake and you hit them with your water gun. Once you are strong enough with those and fast enough with those to attack a wild rattata using quick attack, then we will travel on. Is that ok?"

Lapras looked a little down but nodded. Ash looked at her and slowly moved into the water. He scratched her horn as he said "Lapras, you are extremely rare. People will literally kill us just to get to you. I need you to be strong enough to protect both you and me before we go into the wilder parts. I am sorry that it seems so boring now but this is one area where there are not too many strong pokemon. We will train here for two or three weeks depending on how fast you can grow stronger before we leave. I have enough food for the two of us for a month in my back. You will also learn to hunt eventually. I will always feed you but considering the pokemon I am thinking of catching and considering that I will not be in cities for weeks on end, it would not be feasible for me to carry food for everyone for all those weeks. Each of my pokemon will learn to hunt while I will carry the essential vitamins and other stuff as well as a lot of berries. I will carry a lot of food but definitely not enough for all of us for that long. I would not be able to store that much food on me. But that is not a concern now. You are still young and small. You need to grow to at least six and a half feet before we start you on that. Now which training would you like to do first?"

Ash looked at lapras as she gained a thoughtful look. She finally decided on swimming around. So Ash got back in the water after placing his bag on one of the high rocks in the water. He then held on to Lapras as he asked her to swim around. She kept swimming around as fast as she could. This was training for both him and her. For him it was strength training as his body fought against the force of the water and his hands had to hold on to the spike on Lapras's back. For her it was strength training as she had some weight and something that would provide her with resistance to her swimming. This went on till Ash got tired. Once he got tired, he told Lapras to keep continuing swimming at her top speed.

After this continued for some time, ash stopped her since it was obvious that she was not tiring that easily but her top speed was not very fast. So he asked her to push herself to the absolute maximum and not pace herself. This got her tired quicker, but still took some time. Ash praised her for her endurance saying

"Well Lapras, it looks like you are very fit and your stamina is very high. We just need to work on speed and strength. We need you to be faster than the fastest ferries if I am to travel the seas with you since the distances are very long. Now come here, I collected a lot of stones. You should be able to hit them as fast as possible."

Thus began their water gun accuracy training. This continued till Ash ran outta stones and then he told lapras "Most water attacks from what I remember rely on power. The more pressure you can give for a water attack the better. The difference between the upper attacks and the lower powered attacks is the pressure and the amount of water. So we will start working on pressure. Right now, your water gun is like a normal pokemon's water gun. We will keep increasing the pressure till it is incredibly strong and is strong enough to rival most pokemon's Brine attack. This will only help you when you learn stronger attacks."

Saying this, he got lapras to attack a rock on the side of the lake while he collected more stones. He told lapras to keep increasing the strength on water-gun until she can break the stone in two twice continuously. Lapras kept this up for another hour growing immensely tired in the process. Sure she recovered some energy due to the fact that she was in water, but not enough that she could keep it up.

When he saw that lapras was very tired, he let her take a break saying "Good work lapras. You seem tired. It's good. Take a break. I can see an improvement in your water gun. It is stronger than it was before. Come have a little food." He laid out food for lapras while laying a little food for himself. He went to the rocks and lapras ate from next to him from her plate on the rocks while he sat next to her and ate his food.

After food they took a half hour break. During this time, he spoke to lapras "I am wondering what to do. Do you have any ideas? What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? What pokemon do you want to catch?"

Seeing lapras tilt her head to the side and sing lightly he continued "I want to travel, but I never had a set destination. I just want to see the world. I know that I need strength and money for that. Money we get from the bounties that pokemon centres offer. Strength we get because we train. I have been told that a pokemon grows stronger only from constant battles and pushing themselves beyond their limits. So we will catch every pokemon with a partner, a rival whom that pokemon can train with. Both are our friends. And we want both to grow strong. I am currently thinking of a rival for you, whom you can train against. Any suggestions?"

Seeing lapras a little more enthusiastic about it he said "Good, I'll get a list of pokemon that are available nearby. You can decide whom you want and we will go and get them."

At this seeing lapras nod, Ash got up and went to get the pokedex. There he showed lapras the commonly available pokemon in the area. He said "Here, these are the pokemon that are commonly available. First, do you want a pokemon that can move on both land and water? Or only on water?"

He got an image of a water based pokemon and looked up in surprise. He said "I just got an image of a water based pokemon. Is that you?"

Seeing Lapras nod again, he asked her "Can you send me an image of any one of the three pokemon on this page?"

He got an image of poliwrath. Seeing this, he whooped in delight. He was extremely excited. He read about the fact that lapras could communicate telepathically but he never figured it would be an ability from birth. He assumed that it was something that was worked upon extensively like for psychics and it would take a lot of time before he could even start lapras on telepathic communication.

He said looking at lapras with an excited expression "Can you communicate with me telepathically?"

He got a confused feeling in his mind while lapras cooed again while tilting in her head. So he asked her "Can you talk to me through feelings in my mind?" At this lapras nodded looking a little wary while ash seeing this jumped and hugged her saying "This is so awesome. Now I understand why the professor said you were special. Excellent. Now I can get what you are saying. This is going to be much more fun. Yay."

The happy feeling was infectious as lapras also smiled and butted her head against his chest. He caught her head in his hands and started rubbing her head behind her horns and she gave a pleased coo and feelings of happiness to ash's mind.

Ash said "This is great. We will have to work on this as well. But in the meantime, let's take a look at the pokemon that are available here." Saying this, he got back to sitting down while lapras came and floated next to him with her head near his shoulders.

He pointed towards magikarp and said "This is a pokemon that is called magikarp. It is available everywhere. It evolves into a gyaridos. They are huge and monstrously powerful." At feelings of questioning in his mind he said "They are around 5 times your size on average in length and around your height in width." He got feelings of astonishment in his head. He continued saying "They are not very good as water types but are very strong and can travel the seas easily."

He continued to the next pokemon "This is a horsea, they are a little rare here but are still found easily. There is a pond a little distance away where I saw a few. They evolve into a kingdra. As a horsea and a seadra they cannot leave the water but they can as a kingdra levitate onto the land though they still prefer the water. They are good as a water type and can probably learn many moves in a similar manner to you." Feeling anticipation, he said "They are good. The next pokemon that I thought of was a tentacruel. They are huge and can easily move through the seas. They are easily available here and can become very powerful. They also are not exactly what one expects from a typical water type but they are a good water type pokemon and are immensely strong."

Seeing Lapras nod to continue he flipped to a different picture in the pokedex and said "These are seaking, they evolve from goldeen and are pretty song. They also live only in the water and do not come out on land. They are good pokemon and a little strong but not very strong. These are the only water based pokemon available nearby. Do you want to look at the land based ones as well?"

Seeing lapras nod he said "There are three more available. You have already seen one of them. This is a poliwag. We saw it a little while ago. It evolves into two powerful pokemon, one that is a fighter and another that is a little psychic. They are good pokemon." Seeing lapras nod he said "The next one is a psyduck. They are somewhat strong pokemon that evolve into a strong water pokemon called golduck. They also have fledgling psychic abilities." He looked at lapras and continued and said "The last one also has basic psychic abilities. It is found out on sea very close to pallet. It is called a staryu. It evolves into a starmie and is a pretty powerful pokemon as well. Although none of these come close to you, gyaridos and kingdra. You three are the most powerful of the lot mentioned. But the others are also good."

Seeing this, he said "You can think about what pokemon you want to get as your rival. Tell me tonight. For now, get back to laps. We have had enough of a break."

Saying this he stood up and put the pokedex away. Lapras also started on her workout. The routine from morning continued and lapras continued growing stronger. While her physical abilities did not grow much, her abilities in her water gun improved at a visible rate. He accuracy was getting much better while she was slowly starting to cause a dent in the rock she was shooting the water-gun into. Hopefully by the end of the next three days, she would be able to crack it easily.

He set about setting a fire. He remembered that he had to call his mom and also made a note to ask for the new psychic resistance bands that are available in the market. Sure they were a little expensive but they were a one-time investment and he would ask his mother to get him a few which he would pay-back when he started earning money.

Once camp was established, the wood collected and a fire going, he started reading the material that professor Oak gave about Lapras since that was his first pokemon. He would start reading the other water pokemon book once he was done with lapras's book. As the sun was setting ash called out to lapras who was still devoutly doing laps after another tiring session of water guns at the rock. The rock had a small indent around the size of lapras's water-gun already.

She came over to him panting a little and he scratched her behind her ears praising her for her good work. Then he set out both their food and ate with her. Once done he was reading the lapras book while she was looking on from behind. He read out loud and kept asking lapras if somethings were true. The book was incredibly detailed. It spoke majorly about lapras's diet. They were omnivores but preferred eating sea-weed and other aquatic plants to pokemon. They had gills on the side that they could use to breathe underwater if required although they prefer to stay on the surface of the water. They were excellent swimmers and were amongst the fastest swimmers in the pokemon kingdom which was a necessity considering that they constantly travelled the rough seas. It also told him that the shell on lapras's back although heavy was very strong and much stronger than it was heavier. It would get stronger and stronger the more Lapras absorbed water from the sea. There was some process internal to the body of a lapras that would convert sea salts to the material that the shell is made of. It was interesting. There was also a warning that excessive drag should not be put on the shell during the early years of the lapras and once it was atleast six feet high, it could start taking weight on the shell since by then, the shell would have grown stronger and the muscles below the shell holding it in place would grow much stronger.

Reading this, Ash apologized about the bad training method of holding on to the shell of the lapras but lapras just sent him feelings of forgiveness and happiness while butting him with a smile on its face. Ash finished the book on lapras since it was relatively short. He did not need the information about how to raise a baby lapras. He kept track of all the information required and stopped reading.

Once done, he asked lapras whether she thought of the pokemon she wanted as a companion and rival. Seeing her nod, he asked her which pokemon it was and got back the image of a kingdra. Ash smiled. He knew that he might not be able to make it a kingdra very easily since dragon scales were very rare but he would make it an insanely strong seadra and if he could not find a dragon scale in a year, he would come back to talk to professor Oak about getting help from Oak's dragonite. He said "We will go get our friend tomorrow. We will capture him and then come back here to train. This is going to be fun."

Seeing lapras nod, he told her it was getting late and that they would start very early the next morning. He also told her that tomorrow morning, they would try to get dragon dance working properly since he didn't know if it would work easily. It was an egg move and could possibly not work till lapras was strong enough. Seeing lapras nod again, he started scratching her and felt feelings of happiness invade his mind. He then picked up the phone and called his mom while still scratching lapras. She picked up the phone and said "Hello Ashy. I was worried. Where are you? How are you? How was your first day?" Seeing this, ash interrupted her saying "Mom. I'm fine. I am alright. Nothing is wrong with me. Lapras is also fine. We are very close to pallet. Only an hour or two away from pallet. My first day was good. Taking prof Oak's advice, we started training to make Lapras strong before we went ahead. I am also probably going to catch a horsea and then a few more days later, a pidgey and a spearow or two different pidgey. But first horsea. I will be around pallet for a week atleast. Maybe a little more. I need to hide lapras from the rest of the world till she gets stronger."

Seeing her nod, he continued "I wanted to ask you if you could get me those psychic resistance bands that came up to help train pokemon? I don't know if they are available in pallet but could you check tomorrow and call me? If they are available in pallet, I will come and get them from you."

Delia said "Ok, I will check. How many do you need?"

Ash said "One psychic band per pokemon should be enough, I need only four. I am not catching more than that before viridian. And I can get more from there if required."

Delia nodded and said "I will call you tomorrow Ashy. Good night and take care."

Ash also said "Good night mom." Lapras cooed at her.

He cut the phone and then put his things away. He slowly set up his mat. It had gotten dark and the time was around 8:30. In the jungle with no light, that was very late since nothing could be done. He slowly put out the fire. Left lapras out of her pokeball and went to sleep in his mat after wishing her good night. He told her "Wake me up if something comes up. Otherwise wake me up tomorrow morning when you get up."

THE NEXT DAY

The next morning, Ash got up early. It was before sun-rise. The sky was just lighting up and lapras was still sleeping. He read that lapras usually slept underwater but since he could not go underwater, she slept above water for him.

He stretched and slowly called out to lapras to wake her up. Once she woke up he said "Good morning Lapras. Now we try to use dragon dance. Then we do our morning exercize. Then we eat. After that, we go look for a horsea. SO let's start. Are you ready?"

Seeing that she was he said "Lapras, use dragon dance." Lapras instantly got a reddish glow around her for a few seconds. Then her muscles bulked up a little and stretched. But the glow slowly vanished and it seemed like it suffused into her muscles. She had a slight aura while using dragon dance. Once she did and it seemed like she was under strain he said "Now try moving as fast as you can around the lake." Lapras's speed had increased to a large extent. She was moving much faster than her top speed yesterday. This change probably affected her reflexes as well as physical attack power. This was a very pleasant thing since Dragon dance came with a single drawback which was that using dragon type energy grew slightly difficult when dragon dance was used. But this was not a drawback for Lapras since most of her attacks were water and Ice types with only one possible dragon attack that she could learn which was dragon pulse. It was a long way away before she could learn that and she had a whole host of other moves that he wanted her to learn before she even approached dragon pulse.

Lapras suddenly slowed down and panted. Her speed reduced to slightly lower than yesterday's top speed because she was tired but not much lower. This was good. She could hold it for a small amount of time. Lapras could use this to improve working on her speed and strength since dragon dance used up muscle strength and helped build the muscles. It only provided an alternate source of energy that the muscles can use and forced the muscles to work a little overtime. This prevented the sensation of cramps occurring or the muscle tearing since it performed a small healing to strengthen the muscles. Over time, this led to very strong muscles. Ash was glad that lapras had dragon dance working. He was very interested in learning with it.

He said "Good job lapras, you can use dragon dance although it tires you out fast. This is because of two reasons as per my knowledge. The first is that you ran out of draconic energy. The second is that the muscles ran out. This could be a very impressive and easy way for you to train both your draconic energy stores as well as muscle strength. After we catch horsea, you will exercize only with dragon dance used once. Once you get used to the feeling of using dragon dance and working with it and your body doesn't start breaking down with it anymore, we will use it twice. This kind of training should get you stronger and faster in a much shorter time."

Lapras nodded tiredly. Ash said "Now don't worry. Good job. I'm very happy as you can probably tell". Seeing Lapras nod he said "Now, we take a break for breakfast. Then we go get a horsea as our friend. Come on. Let's eat up." Lapras came over to him and nudged his chest a little while sending him the image of a sun-rise. It was the lapras version of a good morning.

Ash scratched her behind her ears and then went about setting food for her while she floated peacefully on the lake looking at the sky. The morning food was the typical trainer's food with a crushed oran berry for her energy.

He set a plate for her on the shallow rock while he set another for himself near the rock and sat down on the rock. They shared a peaceful morning eating breakfast silently in each other's company. He got general feelings of satisfaction from lapras which brought a smile on his face and happiness which transferred to lapras. This was like a loop and soon both were happily smiling.

Once done, he set about cleaning up and putting his things inside. Once done, he told lapras that he would recall her and release her in the pond that he saw the horseas playing. She nodded and licked his face before he recalled her. Once done, he set about making for the pond where he saw the horseas. It was a good hour away from where he currently was and he enjoyed walking through the woods. At times like this he felt sad that lapras could not walk the woods with him but then he got better thinking that they could travel down rivers to get where they wanted to go. And kanto had many small rivulets that dotted the area. It did not have anything major that cuts across the region but a network of small rivulets that connected various parts of the region.

He watched a few pidgeys, caterpies, rattatas moving around and starting their daily activities. He finally felt excited. Like he was travelling out into the world. Just nature, pokemon and him. He kept walking towards the pond where he saw some horsea playing. He stopped and collected a few berries whenever he spotted them on the way but for the most part, he stuck to the trail between the two ponds. He continued on his way when suddenly he met a trainer who challenged him.

The trainer was a guy who was slightly taller than he was but thinner. He also looked to be about the same age give or take a few months. He had two pokeballs strapped to his belt while he wore shorts and a small yellow cap on his head. He looked like someone who did not spend much time in the wilds considering that his muscles didn't look that well developed neither did his clothes have stains of grass and other things on them. He said "Hey, I'm Alan from viridian city and I want to challenge you to a pokemon battle."

Ash looked at him and considered whether to battle or not. He looked at him and said "Hi, I'm Ash from pallet. I only have one pokemon so it will be a one on one. Is that ok?"

Seeing Alan nod ash said "Let's begin. You go first."

Alan said "I choose you geodude." Saying this, he released what looked like an average geodude for its species. It looked about the same height and weight as normal geodudes, ithad one extra ridge to it over others but that did not seem to be a significant enough difference. Ash smiled and said "Go my friend. And released Lapras, who looked around confused. Ash said "Hey, don't worry, on the way to the lake we got challenged to a pokemon battle. You will do great. Just chill and work like usual."

Lapras looked at him, looked across at Alan and his geodude and nodded. She gained a somewhat determined look in her eyes and sent across a message to Ash that she was ready to battle. Ash nodded and said "Well Alan, you can have the first move."

Alan was a little unnerved by the pokemon he saw since he did not know what it was and neither did Ash nor his pokemon call out the pokemon's name. He said "Geodude, lets play it safe. Start with a defense curl and then start moving into a tackle." The moment he said that geodude started gaining a shine on his body while his colour started to become a darker brown. While this was happening Ash looked at geodude and said "Water gun, in breaks, as fast and hard as you can while being accurate."

Lapras nodded and instantly she unleashed a water gun. Alan shouted "Move geodude!" Geodude rolled away and escaped the first burst but the second third and fourth hit him. By this point of time geodude had fainted but lapras hit one more burst just to be sure and then stopped. Alan's geodude was down and had a small crack in its outer body. This was not a bad thing but was not good for a geodude since that indicated that the outer body of the geodude was not strong enough. Alan nodded dejectedly and returned his pokemon. He looked at ash and said "You want to have another one on one battle?"

Ash didn't mind and said "Go ahead. I don't mind."

Alan nodded and then released his second pokemon saying "Go pidgey."

From his pokeball came a slightly smaller than average pidgey but that thought was shaken off when her wings were unfolded. The pidgey had slightly larger wings in comparison to her body size and was relatively faster than normal as she reached a height she deemed safe. From there she looked down and cawed.

Alan said "Pidgey, sand attack." Instantly pidgey started flapping her wings at a fast speed to raise some sand into the air. Ash instantly said "Lapras, close your eyes. Wait for the sand to settle and then use water-gun. Bursts again. While closing your eyes, growl at her."

Instantly there was a growl that filled the air that caused pidgey to falter and become cautious. She could not recklessly attack and was a little hesitant in attacking. The pidgey kept up her sand attack.

Alan said "Use Gust." Pidgey instantly changed focus and instead of focussing on blowing sand into the air, she instead focussed her power to use a pushing force on lapras that would hit her with the force of a tackle."

Ash looked a little nervous and said "Take it." Lapras waited resolutely for the gust to hit her. It hurt but very little. The effect of the gust was that it removed the sand from the air and pushed it away.

Ash said "Now, open your eyes and water gun. pidgey is above to the left." Lapras did that instantly.

The moment Lapras did that, Alan said "Quick-attack to dodge those water guns." Pidgey vanished in a streak of light. She was a blur and was dodging lapras's water-guns although it was closer and closer each time. It seemed that the training to keep up a constant fire of water guns did good. Eventually, despite dodging, pidgey got tired of constantly keeping on quick-attack. It was supposed to be used as a sudden burst of energy to the muscles to increase speed to a large extent and tackle. It required a lot of training to hold it up constantly. The moment pidgey got out of quick-attack, she was hit with a water gun. That threw off her flight and she had to perform some tricky manoeuvres to not crash into the tree trunk. These threw off Lapras's aim for one burst of water gun but the coming three hit and resolutely pushed pidgey into the tree trunk. Lapras didn't stop until Alan called a hold. She stopped and noticed that pidgey was knocked unconscious.

Instantly Ash and Alan rushed to pidgey since it was a small pidgey and the force it hit the tree with might cause it issues. Ash reached the pidgey first and examined it. Just as he was done, Alan came by to do the same. Ash stood up and said "Nothing seems broken or hurt. She might have a few bruises on her chest but that can be expected from a battle. She just seems to be knocked unconscious due to the sudden hit to her head. A potion should fix her up, but just to be safe, get her checked out at the poke-center at pallet. It's one and a half hours that way."

Alan looked at ash with a mad face and said "You are a very brutal battler."

Ash replied "This is a battle. I would never harm a pokemon to death battle or no but in a battle one fights all out without losing any advantages. Why would a pokemon that can hit the other pokemon give up the chance just so the other pokemon recuperates in battle? Outside battle I understand and would never hurt a pokemon that badly but in battle I'm sorry. This is how it is. So long as the pokemon is not hurt too badly, all's fine according to me. Pokemon get hurt battling, it's not going to be tickling."

Alan was still pissed but said "You won against me fair and square. While I think you were harsh, I understand the view you take. I don't think I will battle against you anytime soon unless my pokemon get stronger. Here's the money. Thanks for the way to pallet."

Saying this, he pulled out his pokedex and confirmed transferring 1000 poke-dollars to Ash's pokedex and walked away after recalling his pokemon. Ash shook his head and turned to lapras who was slowly waddling towards him a little confused. Ash walked up to her and scratched his head while she sent him confused feelings. Both happy and sad. Ash said "That is why I don't like pokemon battles. Pokemon get hurt. You performed very well today but we need more moves against your opponents. I am happy."

Lapras instantly had a smile on her face as Ash said "Now, I am going to recall you and get to that lake. It is only about ten minutes away. I'll see you there." Seeing Lapras nod, Ash returned her and continued walking.

Once he reached the lake, he released Lapras and then slowly walked along the shore of the lake with lapras swimming alongside him. He told her "I'm taking you to the place where I saw the horseas playing. I do not have a fishing rod and won't be able to fish a horsea out. You go down and talk to the school of horseas about one that wants to travel with us. If they want to battle to see whether we are strong enough, then tell it to come up and we can battle together against it. Once we find one, we will spend the rest of the day walking back to the other lake and training. There may be gyarados in this lake and none of us is currently strong enough to take one on. So you ready to go?"

Seeing lapras nod, he said "Go have fun, chat with a few of the horsea and whichever one wants to come on top after all the stuff I described, let them come and then we will battle them if they want us to."

Lapras nodded once again, licked his face and went underwater while he just sat there on the rock. Eventually after around half an hour or so Lapras came back on the surface trailed by a horsea. Lapras immediately went towards Ash and butted her head against his shoulder while Ash scratching her ears. Horsea just stood there undecided on what to do.

Ash asked "So is the horsea interested in coming?" On seeing Lapras nod, he continued "Do we have to battle it?". Lapras shook his head and just cooed lightly while sending images of travelling and kingdra. Ash said "Does it know about our training and how harsh I can get?"

Seeing lapras nod Ash turned to horsea and said "I want to travel. I'm sure Lapras told you as much about me as she can. If you still want to join us, here is the pokeball. Tap against it."

Horsea looked a little confused but slowly came up to ash, snorted some ink on his feet and then hit his head on the pokeball. The pokeball sucked him in without any problems and ash was happy saying "Yes, we got our second teammate. Now we go back to the older lake."

Saying this, he slowly walked back to the location of the lake from where the other lake is closest with lapras swimming along on the lake. Once he reached, he turned to lapras and told her he would return her. Lapras nodded and waited. Ash returned her and immediately started walking back towards the other lake.

Nothing very exciting happened on the way. Ash reached the other lake and then released Lapras and horsea. Lapras cooed and sent him a happy feeling, while horsea just looked on. Ash smiled at lapras and then turned to horsea saying "I'm going to scan you with the pokedex. After that, we will decide how to train you. For a few days now, you and lapras are going to be training buddies. Just stay still while I scan you ok?"

Seeing horsea bob its head, he took out his pokedex and scanned it. The pokedex said "This is a horsea. They shoot down food with short precise bursts of ink and maintain their balance in currents using the manoeuvrability of their tails. This horsea is male and knows the attacks Bubble, SmokeScreen, Water-Gun and Disable. They are incredibly fast in the water and very accurate with their snout attacks. For more information, check their page on the pokedex."

Ash looked at horsea and said "That is a somewhat impressive movelist. I am surprised you know disable but I assume that it is an egg move. You must have had a psyduck line pokemon in your family. Anyway, this is good. You are supposed to be precise and accurate. Let's see how true that is."

Saying this, Ash started out on the same course he had lapras do as practice. He noted that while horsea had far more accuracy and speed than lapras, it had far less power in terms of the ranged attacks. In terms of speed, despite them being in still waters and horsea's boost, lapras was still faster than horsea and this surprised ash. But on the whole he was happy with the horsea.

After testing horsea he said "Now on, you will perform all your exercises together. Horsea that is your rock. By the time we leave, you should be able to crack that rock in two using only your watergun. Also most of your physical training will be along the lines of lapras since both of you lack speed and strength. Apart from that, we will be having battles against each other. Spars if you will. Fight with all you have got, push yourself to the limits. We will be doing this everyday in the afternoon. For now, start exercising, start on your speed and strength drills."

Saying this, he looked up. He saw Lapras using dragon-dance and smiled. Good that she remembered. She looked at him and saw his smile at her. She sent a happy feeling back, spoke to the horsea and took off. Horsea was surprised. He also started taking off in the maximum speed he could. Ash in the meanwhile called his mother.

"Mom, did you check for the bands?"

"Yes, Ashy. I went and saw them in the mart. There was an offer where taking six in bulk came out cheaper than taking six individually so I bought six bands for you. When are you coming to get them?"

Ash said "My pokemon are doing their exercises. I will probably be home late evening tonight and sleep at home if that is ok?"

Delia's face lit up as she said "Yes it is Ashy. Tell me what you did when you come back. Bye."

Ash also said bye and cut the phone. After the call, he continued watching their exercizes and then set out lunch. Once lunch was set, he called for a break. After lunch they trained for an hour more and then he told them "Hey, we are going home for tonight. I will probably leave you in a lake in prof Oak's place if that is what you prefer. My mother has our training aids. Once we get those, we can come back here early tomorrow morning. So, ready to go?"

They nodded and he returned them. He walked back towards pallet. He missed the town despite the fact that he had been away from there only for two days. He still smiled. His pokemon were growing slowly. He couldn't see them as uber strong monsters now but he eventually would. He slowly walked towards pallet. He made it a little before the sun set and went to the Oak's place. Once there he knocked and an aide to prof Oak opened the door. Ash asked "Hey is professor Oak available?"

The aide nodded and led Ash in. Ash was sitting waiting when professor Oak came into the room. He was surprised and said "Ash, what are you doing here? I thought you would be in the wilderness somewhere?"

Ash smiled and said "I would have, but I need to train some pokemon before that. Also I needed a training aid, so I stayed nearby. Mom purchased those psychic resistance bands and I am here to take them. I thought I might as well stay the night and talk to mom and leave tomorrow morning again. Since I have two water bound pokemon, I figured I could keep them here."

Oak nodded but raised an eyebrow and said "Two water pokemon?"

Ash nodded saying "I have read somewhere and believe that pokemon get stronger faster if they battle more. This is apart from normal training. I want to have friends I can travel with sure, but they should be strong enough to protect me should it be required and vice versa. So I need to make my pokemon strong. So I devised a buddy system. Each pokemon I catch will have a buddy who will train together always. I needed a buddy for lapras and she chose a horsea. So I caught a horsea and now am training him as well."

Oak smiled and said "Not many people know that pokemon grow strong by fighting. But there are other ways to strength. Just that those take more time. Apart from that, the buddy system is unique. I would like to see their results. You can release them in the first lake near the door. There are very docile pokemon there. Both your pokemon are not territorial are they?"

Seeing Ash shake his head he continued "Well, go on ahead. I'm sure Delia is waiting."

Ash said "Thanks professor. I'll leave them here. Kindly feed them dinner and then leave them in the lake. They enjoy sleeping outside the pokeball. I'll be back for them early tomorrow morning. Is that ok?"

Oak nodded saying "Yea, I'll be up. See you tomorrow."

Ash walked out towards the lake and released his pokemon. He told them about the situation and then left them there saying he would be back for them tomorrow morning. He scratched lapras behind her ears and petted horsea's head. Both gave a sound of pleasure and then he left.

He looked forward to meeting his mother and talking to her. There was something about talking to people in person that a phone just couldn't capture. With a smile on his face he walked home.