Howzit fellow pokefans! Before you begin reading, I would like to clarify a few things for everyone. This story does not at all follow canon, and if you are looking for a novelization of either the anime or the games, I suggest you look elsewhere. Ash WILL NOT be catching all his canon pokemon, however, that does not mean that some of his team will not be returning. I happen to like many of the 'mon he so happened to catch. Pokemon will also not be limited to four moves, and HM's do not exist. If your pokemon has wings, it can fly. As much as I love aura as a concept, he will not have aura in this story, nor is he a natural psychic like Sabrina. This will be darker in tone, so there may be character death, graphic violence, and other such adult themes. Ash and his team will not be constrained to only the gyms and the league. The world is a vast and open place, and he will be experiencing it. With that in mind, please read and review my very first fanfiction! Thank you!
Today, Oak decided, is a good day. It was a strange thing to believe, considering that it was just past five in the morning, but he was always up early this time of year. Good things always happened today. You see, last night was the grand finals of the prestigious Indigo League Championship, which means that today, the twentieth of March, is the very first day of the new league season, and he would have the great pleasure of introducing his three students to their very own starter pokemon and watching as they went out to start their own lives.
I still remember the day I received my first partner, he chuckled, imagining his small Charmander stomping around Route One. To be young again…
Rising from his well-worn, red desk chair with a peaceful smile, Oak made his way across the white linoleum tile of his office to a beaten but freshly polished briefcase that leaned precariously against one of his many towering bookcases. Gently brushing a few flecks of dust and eraser shavings off the distressed leather, the pokemon professor couldn't help the twinge of nervous anticipation that ached in his heart. Ash is in for quite the surprise today. Whether this is a good or bad thing, however, remains to be seen.
It has been a long-standing tradition for students of the Kanto region's leading researcher to receive one of three rare and powerful starters. It was meant as a reward to the aspiring trainers for being amongst the highest scoring participants in the PTAA's (Pokémon Trainer Aptitude Assessments). This series of tests was designed to be taken on a participants fourteenth birthday and tested their knowledge of wilderness training, pokemon physiology, and pokemon theory, amongst other similar topics. If they passed, the participant would be granted access to an official Trainer's License from any of the Indigo League's approved researchers and could receive their very first pokemon at start of the upcoming Tournament season.
Professor Samuel Oak is the most accredited researcher in Kanto, and arguably, the world. This gave him access to a great many more resources than other League sanctioned researchers. The first came in terms of location. Oak's lab was in the quaint and quiet town of Pallet, located along the southeastern tip of Kanto proper. Pallet's flat plains allowed the professor to have a vast amount of space for his renowned Pokemon Ranch, which allowed his student's pokemon to roam and train freely in the yard. The second perk came in terms of access to the three starters.
Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander were the three-official starter pokemon of the Kanto region and could only be distributed by the official head of that region's scientific research department. Long before Oak became the prominent researcher he was today, tradition stated that the top prospects of each region would receive their choice of partners from that region's own trio to begin their journey with.
At least that was the plan.
Oak brought his hand to his face to gently rub his forehead in frustration. He had managed to procure a Bulbasaur from a breeder just outside of Cerulean City for Leaf, the eldest of the three soon-to-be trainers. He had also managed to obtain a Squirtle from his good friend and business associate that lived on island down along the Cinnabar coastline. Gary wouldn't let me hear the end of it, had I been unable to source him one of his precious Squirtle. The professor chuckled lightly at this, before looking back at the briefcases and frowning.
Ash was the youngest of the Pallet trio and had a connection with pokemon that Oak had never seen before. The professor would often see the young lad surrounded by the ranch's many occupants and could only watch shell-shocked as the small child interacted with them. Even his own starter, a Charizard named Eldin, could be seen galivanting with the small boy. Eldin was the Alpha Protector of the ranch and was notoriously aggressive to anyone but Sam, but that didn't stop Ash. No, his student could often be seen riding on the pseudo dragon's back as he gently flew around the grounds.
It was no surprise when the boy confessed to dreaming of training a Charizard of his very own. With all the time he had spent playing with Eldin, Sam would have been surprised had he wanted anything but. After all, what young man doesn't want a fire breathing dragon on their team? Oak would have laughed, had this been the case, but he knew that it wasn't childish desire that fueled the raven-haired boy's choice in partners.
Dammit, Red. It's been a decade and he still hasn't heard a word from you.
Red Ketchum was at one point, long ago, a student of Oak's. He had been a fantastic battler, one of the best to ever do it, in fact. He was the trainer of Eldin's first born son, Magnus. Magnus's mother was Sam's own Dragonite, 'Druid,' and grew to become easily one of the five strongest pokemon in all of Kanto. This legendary Charizard was also the very last thing Ash' remembered of his father.
Flashback: 10 years ago
The heavy pattering of rain echoed across the plains of pallet, splashing small stains of mud up against the foundation of the barn style houses, before quickly washing it away.
"Red Takeuchi Ketchum! Don't you dare walk out that door!" Twenty-two-year-old Delia Ketchum stood in her kitchen, wrapped gently in a loose lavender nightgown, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was furious, her amber eyes were red and her whole body was shaking. "I swear to god, if you walk out on our son, I will never forgive you."
Standing in the open doorway, watching as the tall grasses were battered by the wind and rain, stood a tall, brown haired man dressed in jeans, and a thick red raincoat. "Delia… I…"
"Don't 'Delia' me!" She was on the verge of screaming now. "Your son turns five TOMORROW and you are going to stand there and try and explain why I wake up in the middle of the night, expecting to roll over and see my husband of six years laying besides me, and all I see is this note saying that you're SORRY?"
Angrily thrusting her hand in her pocket, Delia withdrew a crumpled piece of paper. "Delia, my dear," she spat, "I'm sorry that you had to find out this way, but I'm not strong enough to tell you in person. I don't feel like I belong here. Not anymore. My home is in the wild; in the mountains, the trees, not here." Crumpling the note with both hands, she screamed
"You don't BELONG here? In OUR house that WE bought? With OUR money that WE saved? With OUR child that WE made? Tauros shit!"
"Delia, please-" Turning around to look at his wife, Red couldn't help the few tears that escaped his amber eyes. "I never wanted this. I thought that if I just left, maybe you and Ash could just forget about me. He's young. He'll be fi-"
"Get out."
"what? Deli-"
"NO, Red." The tears were gone from her eyes, though they remained red and bloodshot. Her hand was against the granite counter. It was the only thing that kept her standing. "I want you out of my house, husband, and I want you out of our life. You are no longer welcome here."
"Delia, Please. You need to understand. I-"
"Understand what, exactly?" She bellowed; fists clenched so hard they would shake. "I understand that you want to walk out that door and leave me and my son behind, but I won't give you the pleasure of just walking away. I want you out."
Red was still in the doorway, staring at his wife as her stony facade began to crack.
Delia threw the crumpled apology letter at the man, watching as it bounced of his broad chest. "GET OUT! I don't want to see you ever again. LEAVE!"
Red stepped back onto the porch, the spattering of the rain drowning out his wife's muffled sobs.
"Daddy? Where are you going?"
Four-year-old, pajama-clad Ashura Ketchum stood at the bottom of the staircase, blanket in hand, wiping the sleep from his eyes.
"Why's mommy sad?"
Red quickly turned to look at his son, before promptly turning and running out into the rain, a weathered pokeball in hand.
"Dad?" called Ash, before running out onto the porch, only to watch as his father mounted Magnus' seven-foot frame.
"I'm sorry, son." With a mighty roar and hefty flap of its large wings, the orange pseudo-dragon took off into the night, the ember glow of its tail quickly fading into the night.
Where are you, Red?
Professor Oak sighed. Sourcing a Charmander for the young man had been far more difficult than he had expected. In fact, he had only managed to find one a few days beforehand. The breeding center he usually worked with was stationed out near Victory Road; however, due to the recent crime spike overtaking Kanto, the couple in charge had decided to move to the distant region of Unova, and so the center had shut down.
Sam had almost given up on finding one of the fiery reptiles for Ash until he quite literally stumbled upon one the other day. On his way to get the morning newspaper, Oak had tripped over a rather large stone placed upon his doormat. Grumbling slightly, the aging professor turned to grab the offending object, only to discover that the culprit was in fact not a stone, but rather a glossy new pokeball.
Frowning slightly, Oak pondered the existence of the sphere he had tripped over. To his immense surprise, he had discovered that the ball was not only active, but that it contained the very same reptile that he had been searching for, and it was one of the strangest of its species he had ever seen.
I don't know how you two did it, but by Arceus I hope I'm wrong…
Knock knock knock "Professor? Are you in there?"
Snapping out of his daze, Professor Oak cleared his throat before reaching for his office door. "Ahh. Good morning, Mary," he smiled. "What can I help you with?"
Returning his smile, the pretty, purple-haired assistant answered, "your students have arrived, professor. They're waiting outside the lab, by the gate. Would you like me to send them up?"
"Oh, is it that time already?" Glancing quickly at his watch, he saw that it read 9:04. "Oh my! It looks like I'm running a bit late!"
Quickly walking back to his desk and grasping the handle of his briefcase, Sam made for the open door with a large smile on his face. "Let's go meet our new soon-to-be trainers, shall we?"