This story is not in chronological order. It will be random tidbits from random episodes, but with enough content so that it qualifies as a fanfiction. Essentially, this is the prologue, and also chapter 1.

Time: Beginning of the Kanto Journey

Running. That was all the Ash Ketchum could do. A severely injured Pikachu in hand, a rainstorm coming in from above, and a flock of Spearow tailing him with intent to kill. This was the first day of his Pokemon journey and from what he could tell, was most likely his last. But, he would spend this one day defending his first Pokemon. A Pikachu, who wouldn't listen to a word he said. Sprinting across the forest path, he desperately looked for a way to escape the rain of sharp beaks from behind him.

That's when he saw it.

A river.

Spearow on his tail and the clouds were becoming darker.

He had no choice but to jump in and pray that they would be fine.

The river was fast, full of harsh and deadly Water Pokemon, and more importantly, it was the Pallet Town's most infamous river, due to its hard rocky floor, and shallow areas. Ash jumped into the water, Pikachu in hand, to desperately escape the Spearow flock. Then, it hit him. Literally.

The rock bottom floor of the river immediately knocked him out. Pikachu was still awake, seeing the boy he saw as a goofy beginner trainer with no idea what he was doing, now on his deathbed, trying to save him from a flock of Spearow, technically it had pissed off. There was nothing either of them could do now, the strong current was pushing them too fast, and Ash was completely unconscious. His body wasn't submerged, so at least he and Pikachu were not drowning, but their ability to escape was slipping away very quickly.

Over on the land, a red-headed girl was busy fishing in the river. She knew the rain, brought out some great water type Pokemon in the river waters. Her goal was to become a Water-type Pokemon expert. Suddenly, her rod began to tighten. Eagerly, she expertly reeled it in, and a Gyarados popped out. The one Water-type she couldn't handle. She quickly grabbed her rod, and bag before a Hyper beam was shot at her. Her bike on the other hand… was not in a great shape. The Gyarados, seeing that he made his point, swam back into the water. The girl sighed in relief.

She commented, "Of course it had to be a Gyarados. Guess I have to find a new fishing spot."

She began to walk back into the forest when she slipped, and with a swoosh, fell straight into the river. As an expert swimmer, she knew how to avoid the rocks in the water, but the current was too strong, the best she could do was avoid rocks, and keep her head out of the water.

This was not a good day for her.

Meanwhile, the boy and his Pikachu were still being washed away by the current, the Pikachu was losing energy very fast, and the boy was no longer unconscious, but barely awake, and unable to do anything. It wasn't long until the water began to flow faster. Pikachu knew this was never a good sign, and he was correct. They were headed for a waterfall. Pikachu was desperately holding onto his human lifeboat and closed his eyes, waiting for the impending doom.

Then, he felt himself being thrown into the air. He opened his eyes, to see that he got flung into the air, straight for land. When he landed, he turned around to see the edge of the waterfall and no Ash.

"Pika Pi! Pika!" he cried.

No response.

It thought for a moment, and a tear came down his eyes as he realized what had happened.

Ash had spent the last of his energy to throw Pikachu to safety, leaving himself to fall off the waterfall.

More tears followed, and Pikachu cried to the heavens.

"PIKA PI!"

…

Suddenly, clouds parted and a light shone from above. It was around the area at the bottom of the waterfall. Pikachu didn't know what it was but decided to follow it. Something about that light was soothing. It felt comforting, something it desperately needed. Emotions ran through its head, it used to hate humans, saw them as Pokemon abusers, but on this day, one boy changed his opinion for the better. The boy was young, and stupid, but also brave and protective. Pikachu began to run down the hills, across stones, across paths. It ran down through the forest canopy, to the area around the bottom of the waterfall.

There on the bank of the shore, the golden light pointed towards one particular area. Laying on the gravel shore was Ash. He was covered in scrapes, his legs weren't in the correct direction, he had 3 deep gashes in his chest. His eyes were closed, and he wasn't breathing. Pikachu ran up to the body and stared. That could have been him.

The light shone brighter, and the clouds began to fade, Pikachu stared at Ash and then to the sky, and what he saw shocked him. A large phoenix-like bird was gliding down towards them. Its feathers shone gold, as its body split the clouds. A rainbow glowed behind it, as it landed right in front of him.

The bird stared at the boy, and then at the Pokemon. In a voice of authority, he asked.

"What is this boy to you, Pikachu?"

Pikachu pondered for a moment, and replied "A friend… no, a partner."

The Phoenix slowly smiled, pleased with the answer. He slowly began to shine and he flew upwards towards the clouds, releasing light and sparkles as he flew higher and higher. The sparkles landed on Ash's body, and it began to shine as well.

Pikachu stood back and watched in awe, as all of Ash's wounds began to heal. Then a flash of light burst across the area, forcing Pikachu to close his eyes. When he opened them again, the light had disappeared. He looked at Ash, and with relief, he saw his chest moving, he was breathing. Slowly, Ash stirred and woke up. The first things his eyes saw was a small golden speck in the sky, which promptly left his vision range. Suddenly, Pikachu jumped onto him, glomping him and crying with happiness.

Ash snapped out of his drowsiness and said, "Pikachu…"

Pikachu squeaked in reply, "Ash, I..I… can't believe you're alive! Thank god! I can't believe I hated you before, and now this.. And I- "

Ash suddenly realized, "Wait a second, I can understand you Pikachu."

Pikachu stopped and replied, " Huh? Um… Your an idiot."

"Hey! That's not very nice."

Pikachu giggled a bit and replied, "Sorry, just checking."

Ash, satisfied with Pikachu's reply promptly stated, "Well, whatever just happened, from now on, we're a team right Pikachu?"

Pikachu squeaked, "Partners, let's be together forever."

They hugged for a bit, then with Pikachu on his shoulder, Ash stood up, with a bit of trouble, grabbed his bag, and prepared to leave, still a bit confused about what had happened after he fell off the waterfall, but knew that with Pikachu with him, he could conquer everything and become a Pokemon Master.

Just before he began to leave, he noticed a small rainbow-colored feather on the ground, right where he was just lying. He picked it up, eyeing its unusual colors and shape. "Huh, wonder where this came from." He decided to carefully place it in his bag as a keepsake of his first day and promptly left the river area to get back onto his journey. Up above the clouds, Ho-oh spoke, "When people and Pokemon join together as one, I will return. This is just the first step towards that path."

Meanwhile, Ash had been walking across the path to Viridian city for a while, talking to Pikachu, something he thought was impossible until now, but not something he would complain about, and occasionally battling wild Pokemon. They talked about the incident sparsely, as it left bad memories in both of their minds. It was almost nightfall, and Ash and his Pikachu went to set up camp by the river, despite the incident, the river was still a good place to camp, so long as you weren't in the river. As they were scouting the landscape, they came across a nice flat area.

But Ash noticed something about this particular area, there was an unconscious, red-headed girl lying by the shore, her body was full of cuts and bruises but she was still breathing.

Ash and Pikachu looked at each other and went to go help her out.

So yeah, that's a modified version of Ash's first day, and he has already died. Yay! Due to this I also decided Misty would also face a similar situation, so she would have a much better reason to join Ash on his journey. Anyways, onto the next one.