Episode 1- I choose you!
"I will journey to gain the wisdom of Pokemon training, and I hereby declare to the Pokemon of the world: I will be a Pokemon Master."
Ash left Pallet Town with his cheeks burning and his new pikachu dragging behind him.
His mom went out of her way to embarrass him, "Make sure to change your underwear regularly," indeed. Why did she have to go out of her way to mention that? Sure, it was nice of her to pack him lunch but she didn't have to scream at him about his hygiene in front of all the townspeople. He is a pokemon trainer now, he can take care of himself.
As he finally reached an isolated point in the road between Pallet Town and Viridian City, Ash stopped and turned to the pokemon behind him.
"Pikachu, I get that you don't like me, and that's fine, but I don't want my journey to be with pokemon that don't enjoy being there. So, even though I like your take-no-nonsense attitude, I think I am going to let you go." Ash had decided after the third or so shock in the lab, when an assistant had walked in with an injured magikarp and gotten electrocuted by Pikachu. Pikachu made in clear in the lab and outside of it that he had no intention of cooperating or becoming Ash's pokemon, and while Ash would like to have respected that, he could not leave Pallet Town without a pokemon and Pikachu could not leave the lab without a trainer, so the only option left was to release Pikachu out of the borders of Pallet Town.
"Pikachu," Pikachu remained skeptical of Ash's sincerity, a person cannot be a Pokemon Trainer without a pokemon, and Ash had made it clear in the short time they had known eachother that he wanted to be, not only a Pokemon Trainer, but a Pokemon Master.
"Pika pikachuuu!" Pikachu showed his belief in Ash by throwing a weak thundershock in Ash's direction.
"I don't need a pokemon to fight pokemon! I can catch one without you and I can certainly beat you without one!" Ash bent to pick up a thin stick laying at his feet and straightened while swinging the stick towards Pikachu. "Watch!"
Ash rushed forward and attempted to bring the stick down between the mouse pokemon's head but Pikachu was must faster than Ash and dodged with another thundershock aimed at Ash. Without hesitation, the human and pokemon battled.
Pikachu threw bolts of electricity out constantly, causing Ash to twitch and fall continuously, only for Ash to get up and run attack again. Ash threw sticks and small rocks that he picked up where he fell and as the battle progressed, he became more and more proficient in dodging Pikachu's weakest thundershocks.
Ash jumped to the side and swung his arm to release the mud clump in Pikachu's direction, the clump separating into a small cloud of sand, only to miss Pikachu.
Ash missed more than he hit, he talked big but he actually had very little experience. Ash had challenged people and pokemon for as long as he could remember, but as a scrawny former-crybaby, Ash was never taken seriously by either; Pikachu was the first being to ever take Ash up on his invitation to fight, to ever take Ash seriously, and through the pain of multiple electrocutions in a row, Ash regretted that that one day would be the only day he would ever spend with Pikachu.
By noon, Ash was exhausted and twitching and Pikachu could hardly produce a spark around his panting. Tentatively, Ash sat on the ground and urged Pikachu over.
"We need to take a break," he said in the face of Pikachu's disbelief, "We can start again after we eat lunch. My mom may be unreasonable but she cooks like a world champ."
With his twitching fingers, Ash opened his backpack and removed the lunchbox his mom had placed within, groaning as he realized what was underneath.
"Ash!" His mom had yelled, not for the first time. "Sleep!" Her temper had run short that evening, not that any member of the Ketchum family's temper ever ran long.
"I'll sleep when I'm ready!" Ash yelled back. "I'm getting my first Pokemon tomorrow!"
"Well if you are not going to sleep, probably going to sleep in and miss going out with your friends, you can at least make yourself useful and get ready!" Delia yelled from down the hall, the thick walls muffling her voice but the threat in them clear to Ash.
She walked in quickly to change the channel to Professor Oak's Pallet Town Pokemon Update before just as quickly walking back out, "And keep quiet!"
She might have said something more, but Ash ignored her in the face of Prof. Oak explaining the intricacies of the three pokemon he had the opportunity to take with him. Pokemon had always fascinated Ash, to the point where little else could hold his attention, like manners or telling time. So, when Prof. Oak's Pallet Town Pokemon Update completed and the Hoenn Oceanic Exploration (featuring a school of barboach and whiscash) began, Ash had packed 16 pairs of underwear and none of the camping supplies needed for his journey. By the time he did deign to notice the clock, it was closer to 7 a.m. than 7 p.m. and he fell asleep before his head had hit the pillow.
His bag was entirely filled with underwear. Of course it was, and of course his mom noticed and did nothing to help.
Pikachu noticed the enhanced twitching of Ash's body and scurried to look inside the bag that Ash could not close in time.
"Chuuuuuuu," Pikachu laughed at Ash, what an exemplary Pokemon Trainer.
"Hey! If you keep laughing, I am not going to share my lunch with you!" Ash yelled but still handed Pikachu on of the sandwiches within the lunchbox.
The boy and pokemon ate in silence for several minutes before Ash took out one of the pokeballs given to him by Professor Oak and threw it up into the air before catching it.
"Pikachuuuu!" Pikachu said, calling Ash's attention to him, causing him to miss his next throw and the ball to roll away. Ash kept his eyes on Pikachu and saw him glaring towards the bush the ball had rolled under.
"What is your problem, 'mon?" Pikachu spared the slightest glance for Ash before returning his glare to the ball. Ash stared before slowly reaching into his pocket for another pokeball, startling when Pikachu turned again to glare at Ash, "Why are you glaring at me again? Is it the pokeball?"
Pikachu sent a targeted shock at the ball, causing Ash to loosen his grip before he quickly put the ball away in his pocket, "Ok! I get it you don't like pokeballs. Whatever."
Satisfied Pikachu returned to his sandwich as Ash stuffed the last of his meal into his mouth. Ash stood up and stretch before he turned to face Pikachu once again.
"Ok! We're fed, we're watered, we're rested. I'll beat you this time." Pikachu grinned, bending low to the ground in battle stance and shot a thundershock at Ash, "Ha! Good shot! My turn now!"
Ash leaped toward Pikachu and bopped him right in the head before running away to seek out a new weapon. Ash and Pikachu again traded blows, dodging and attacking as they went.
"Chuuuu!" Pikachu sent out another thundershock and Ash dodged and released the rock in his hand. The rock and the lightning bolt continued until they both hit a nearby spearow. The spearow turned and glared at the duo.
"Spearow!" The lone spearow called, and in the distance a flock emerged.
Ash and Pikachu glanced to each other and grinned, Ash leaned to the side and pulled a stick off a nearby bush and Pikachu sparked his cheeks in excitement, by the time the flocked reached them they were ready. Swooping down, several hundred spearow attacked Ash and Pikachu. Ash swung wildly, bringing down birds with every swing, Pikachu lit up the area with thundershock after thundershock.
The duo continued felling spearow, but for every bird they hit, another replaced it and both were tired from the hours before. Before long, Ash and Pikachu were bleeding and could barely swing their arms or summon a spark.
Without hesitation, Ash bent and picked up Pikachu and began running, calling behind him, "I'm sorry! If you let us rest we'll fight you again later!"
As Ash ran, he quickly approached a cliff and waterfall, his breaths coming out in pants as the run and previous exertions took their toll on him. In indecision over where to go and exhaustion, Ash's pace slowed, Pikachu jumped out of Ash's arms and ran ahead, quickly leaving Ash behind, but the spearow descended and pecked at his vulnerable, yellow body. Ash dived forward and once again gathered Pikachu in his arms but was unable to stop his momentum and rolled over the cliff's edge.
Ash's back hit the water and his breath escaped him in a rush. Pikachu regained his senses as the current of a passing gyarados pushed him out of Ash's arms. Free from humans for the first time in days, Pikachu swam back to Ash, catching the back of his vest in his mouth and pulling them both towards the bobbing fish-hook nearby.
Ash woke as his body collided with the riverbank, "-Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm ok." Ash said as he looked over Pikachu, he had no idea how he and Pikachu had gotten to the riverbank but Pikachu was looking worse after their dip in the river, the dirt had been washed away only for blood to take its place.
"Not you! I was talking to the pokemon! Is it breathing? Look what you've done to it!" Ash looked up to the yelling girl with the screaming, red hair. The girl reached down to touch Pikachu.
"It's none of your business! And keep your hands off," over the yelling of the offended girl Ash could hear the spearow approaching. He glanced around and noticed a nearby bike before looking down to the whimpering pikachu, "I'm borrowing this."
"That's my bike!" Ash ignored her to pedal as hard as he could. As the screaming sound of the approaching spearow got louder the sound of falling rain joined in. The first spearow reached Ash and, exhausted and in pain, it took a single hit for Ash to fall off the bike.
Ash rolled several feet, coming to a stop while facing Pikachu. Crawled the several feet separating them and used his body to protect Pikachu from the spearow that had already reached them, "Pikachu, I'm sorry that I didn't get to release you like I promised, but you need to get in your ball, maybe you'll like your next trainer."
Ash left Pikachu's ball behind as he swatted the spearow away and turned to face the flock, "I am Ash Ketchum! I don't need Pikachu to defeat you, I'll fight you all!"
As Ash screamed at the flock of spearow, a lightning bolt descended from the sky and Pikachu jumped into its path to redirect it onto the spearow.
"Pokemon. Pokemon. Pokemon. I'm gonna get me a pokemon!" Ash ran to Professor Oak's in the wrinkled clothes he had worn the day before, shoes untied and shirt untucked, the sole desire to meet his pokemon occupying his brain. He gave no consideration to the fact that he was late beyond the idea that he had delayed getting to know his new best friend, after all typically getting your first pokemon is not first come, first serve.
Outside of Professor Oak's lab, Ash pushed aside Gary's entourage impatiently, shoving himself into Gary in his rush to finally be a Pokemon trainer.
"Hey! Watch where you're going, freak!" Gary shouted his usual greeting to Ash. "Better late than never, I guess. Just be glad you got to see me before I leave you in the dust!" Gary stuck his nose in the air, puffing out his chest and showing the mysterious stone he had gotten from his grandfather in faces of those watching.
"Gary? Stop blocking the road with your giant ego!" Ash shouted, jumping up into Gary's face.
"Show me some respect!" Gary demand before visibly collecting himself, "Well, Ash, you snooze, you lose. I've got a pokemon and you don't."
"You got you're first pokemon?" Ash was distracted by the lure of pokemon once again.
"That's right loser, I have a pokemon right inside this ball. And you don't, and thanks to your tardiness, you probably never will," Gary had known Ash for years and knew of his tendency to place pokemon over all other interactions, and knew just the words to get Ash fired up, not that it was hard.
"Well I don't need a pokemon to fight you Gary! Bring 'em out and I'll beat them and then punch you right in the face!" In a world where battling was the go-to solution in most situations, and as a kid with a lot of problems but no pokemon, Ash was very used to challenging people and pokemon to fights.
"Go, Go Gary! Go, Go! Beat him, Gary, Beat him!" The watching cheerleaders burst.
Gary looked at Ash with a smirk before turning and addressing the crowd, "I promise that I will become a pokemon master and make the town of Pallet know all around the world! And to do that I don't need to fight a small loser who doesn't even have a pokemon."
Gary hopped into his car, waving goodbye like the royalty he believed he was to the standing crowd, "Now I, Gary Oak, am off to learn the of the Pokemon trainer!"
Ash stood there seething as the crowd dispersed, "He didn't even say what pokemon he got," before collecting himself and running up the stairs to the Professor's laboratory.
As he opened the door the Professor turned, "Oh! You decided to show up after all."
"I'm ready to start my journey! Together with my pokemon, I will become a Pokemon Master!" Ash assured the empty room as Professor Oak waited for Ash by the receptacle holding three pokeballs and the starters within.
"Yes, Ash, you look very ready to start your journey," Professor Oak gave skeptical looks at Ash's unkempt hair and lackluster appearance.
"Looks have nothing to do with ability! I am ready and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise!" Ash jumped in to assure, "Pokemon training has nothing to do with fashion and I question your abilities as a pokemon professor if you can't see that."
Professor Oak had spent enough time with Ash over the years to not take anything he said personally, but still felt stung having his credentials questioned by a 10 year-old, "Why don't you go choose your pokemon and begin your unfashionable journey."
"See, Professor Oak, I haven't really decided which pokemon I want to take with me yet. Can I see them in person first, to see if we'll get along?" Ash had thought hard about his choice since he had decided to become a pokemon trainer and still did not know which starter to choose, but he had a fundamental belief that pokemon teams were family and he couldn't choose a new member of the family without first meeting them.
Professor Oak looked at Ash and smiled, "Sure you can, just open the pokeballs."
Ash reached for the pokeball holding the squirtle and pushed the button to release the pokemon, but the red light of the pokeball dissipated to show nothing was there, "Oh, that pokemon went to a trainer that was on time."
"Then why did you make me waste 3 seconds of my life opening a pokeball that I will never get back?" Ash questioned as he reached for the pokeball holding a bulbasaur, and again the ball opened to show that there was no pokemon within it.
"That one was also taken by a kid that was not late." Professor Oak's mouth held the slightest uptick in the corner as he glanced to the roof.
"Why didn't you just tell me when I got here that all there was left was a Charmander? What was the point of this you dumb, old man?!" Ash reached out for the last pokeball, but once again the ball held nothing.
"The early bird-"
"Why?! What was the point?! Do you just like crushing the dreams of children? Is that what you actually do because a Pokemon Professor actually has pokemon, so you clearly aren't one of those!" Ash lost his temper at the Professor, waving his arms around frantically. As Ash lost himself in his rant he failed to notice one more pokeball rising from the stand.
"I do enjoy teasing the trainers who come here. After all, does anything worth having come easy?" Professor Oak held the fourth pokeball in his hand, offering it to Ash, "This pokemon will certainly present you a challenge and like your journey there will be difficulties-"
The Professor continued to speak but Ash had tuned him out, all of his concentration had focused on the pokeball now in his hands.
The ball opened with a blinding flash and when it died down, in the silence of the lab, a round, yellow mouse sat on the counter, "Pikachu."
Ash opened his eyes to find the unconscious bodies of spearow surrounding him and Pikachu.
Before any words could be exchanged, a giant bird pokemon passed by overhead, "Now they sent a giant fearow! We can never catch a break can we?" Ash and Pikachu looked at each other before looking back at the sky.
"Well bring it on. We'll defeat you too!" The bird pokemon seemingly took no notice of the two exhausted forms screaming at it, and flew into the rainbow. "Who do you think you are, punk? First you have your minions battle us and when they lose you run away. Coward!"
As Ash and Pikachu hurdled insults at the quickly disappearing pokemon, a feather fell into Ash's waving hand. The feather was beautiful, though quickly clumping with the grime rubbed into Ash's skin.
"Well Pikachu," Ash said softly, "if that's not a challenge to fight I don't know what is."
Ash and Pikachu smiled at each other as Ash began the stumble towards Viridian City.