Hello Everyone! This is my first story so I hope to get better as the story goes on. Its a mix of anime and games, with a smarter Ash. I hope you enjoy and don't forget to leave a review.
Chapter One - The Beginning
Our story begins in the little town of Pallet, in the bedroom of a fifteen year old boy called Ash Ketchum. Ash was getting ready for the most important day of his life, the day he begins his journey and the beginning of his career as a Pokemon trainer.
"Ash you're going to be late!"
"I'm coming mum!" Ash shouted back to his mother.
Ever since he was old enough to fully grasp the idea of training Pokemon, Ash has had an internal dilemma on what Pokemon he was going to choose as his starter out of the three Pokemon usually given out as starters in Kanto. The Grass Pokemon Bulbasaur, The Fire Pokemon Charmander or the Water Pokemon Squirtle. He had expressed this problem to Professor Oak when Ash did assistant work at the lab a few years back and the Professor had been more than helpful. He simply said to Ash, the answer will be clear when you and the Pokemon meet each other. An instant connection will be made. Ever since then he hasn't worried. Arceus will deliver.
Ash left his room with his packed backpack and walked downstairs. He was greeted by the image of his mother Delia Ketchum at the stove making breakfast. "Do you have everything you need? Extra underwear included?"
Ash blushed "Mum please I've told you to stop asking me that, I've packed everything. I'm ready" he replied.
"Good, I'm your mother I'm going to worry young man. I want you to have the best journey you can and extra underwear will certainly help"
Ash looked at his mum in confusion "Okay I guess. I'm sure it will mum"
After his mother served him in breakfast, Ash put his backpack on and gave his mum a hug. This will be the last time he sees her in person for a long time and she began to cry. Ash comforted her with the only words that came to his mind
"Mum, I will call you as much I can. You don't have to worry about me, I've been studying for this. I will take the Gym circuit challenge and I'm going to be the strongest Pokemon master the world has ever seen. I promise"
She simply hugged even tighter before finally letting go with a whispered "I love you"
Ash replied with the same.
And with that he left the house in the direction of Professors Oak laboratory.
After a fairly short walk, Ash arrived at the lab. It seemed as though he came pretty early as the other two trainers; Gary Oak and Leaf Sugimori, that were also starting today seemed to not be here yet. This excited him, more Pokemon to choose from he thought.
He couldn't have been more wrong.
As Ash walked into the lab he was greeted by the Professor
"Ash my boy, good morning! Are you ready to start your Pokemon journey young man?" As he patted Ash on the back
Rubbing his head Ash replied "Yes Professor, I can't wait to meet my best friend! I can't wait to see who I make an instant connection with"
At this line the Professor felt kind of awkward
"Ah well there's kind of been a problem. Gary and Leaf came pretty early and took two of the choic-"
Ash cut him off with "Well I'll just have what's left then, I'm sure the connection will still be made" he awkwardly joked with a hint of disappointment
"Well there was another problem, the Charmander that wasn't chosen had to be sent to a friend of mine for another trainer. I have got another Pokemon in mind for you if you'd like it though. It's not a Pokemon that's usually given out to rookies but I know how much studying you have been doing and if anyone can, it will be you that can train him" the Professor laughed.
Intrigued, Ash simply nodded and said "Lead the way"
The Professor walked to the back of the lab and Ash followed. When they arrived, Oak pressed a button on a transfer machine and a Pokeball appeared in it. He then pulled out a Pokedex and 5 extra Pokeballs from his desk and gave them to Ash.
"These are for you, you know what they are so I won't explain them to you but just so you know your Pokedex has all the information you need for any Pokemon thats been discovered so far in this world. It's called a National Dex so it will definitely be a big help"
Ash couldn't contain his excitement any longer and shouted "Can I meet my Pokemon now!?"
The Professor laughed and said "Of course my boy, here is his Pokeball" before giving him the ball.
Ash released the Pokemon. In front of him was a two foot tall quadruped, canine Pokémon with short, black fur and a red underbelly and muzzle. It was a Houndour.
Ash scanned the canine with his new Pokedex
Houndour, The Dark Pokemon. Houndour hunt as a coordinated pack. They communicate with each other using a variety of cries to corner their prey. This Pokémon's remarkable teamwork is unparalleled.
This Houndour is Male with the ability Flash Fire, and knows the moves Leer, Ember, Howl, Bite and Sucker punch.
As Ash absorbed the information, he got more and more excited. When it finished and he learnt that his new friend also had an egg move with Sucker Punch, he could no longer hide it and was positively beaming with happiness.
Ash crouched to Houndours level and said while looking into his possible new friends eyes "Hello, Houndour. My name is Ash Ketchum and if you'll have me I want to become your trainer. I want to be strongest Pokemon trainer in the world and I'll make sure you'll become the strongest Houndoom in the world"
Houndour looked at the boy. He thought to himself, this was it. His calling. His one way ticket to become the strongest. The canine nodded.
Ash nearly cried with happiness and thought of the words that Oak had said a few years ago. He wasn't wrong. There WAS an instant connection.
Ash was standing outside the lab, Houndour stood next to him. He started to do a checklist on everything he had before he left.
Pokegear? Check.
Food for him and his Pokemon? Check.
A map? Check.
Clothes and Bedroll? Check.
And lastly Potions? Check.
He was ready to start his adventure. He started in the direction of Route One. Houndour had no issues keeping up with Ash as he walked so he decided to keep him outside his Pokeball.
"Hey buddy, you mind walking? I kind of like the idea of walking with you rather than keeping you inside your Pokeball. I don't know why, just feels more personal."
Houndour looked up at his trainer and yipped happily before nodding. He started to pad after his trainer.
As they walked Ash began to think about his new Pokemon and his species. Houndour were classified as Dark/Fire Pokemon, something that originally worried Ash when his Pokemon first materialised outside his Pokeball. Dark Pokemon were known to be notoriously difficult to train, but so far Houndour had been nothing but pleasant.
"Hey Houndour, did you want a nickname? I want us to be family so it would be pretty weird calling you by your species name" Ash joked.
Houndour contemplated for awhile before again yipping happily and nodding
"You like Hades? Its something I read in an old textbook, apparently people used to believe he was God of the Underworld. I think it kinda fits your typing and stuff" Ash anxiously asked
Houndour immediately nodded yes.
"Well Hades it is then!" Ash smiled at his new friend
Ash and Hades had reached the end of town and are about to take their first step into the unknown. The last time Ash had left Pallet was when he very young, his mother took him to a friend of families estate for a vacation. Professor Spencer Hale and his wife had recently had a child and his mother wanted to see the new addition.
This first step meant everything for him. He breathed in and stepped onto the route.
As he and Hades walked, Ash saw plenty of Pokemon getting on with their lives. Ever since around twenty years ago when the League introduced a ton of new Pokemon species into the Kanto ecosystem, the numbers of Pokemon boomed. Route one was no exception, there was Pokemon everywhere. With the help of the Pokedex, Ash recognized four different species. He first saw some grazing Pidgey in the tall grass, Ash thought about catching one as the idea of eventually riding a Pidgeot was pretty appealing but none of these particular Pidgey really caught his eye as special. A couple of minutes later he saw a Rattata trying to sneak up to him, it had probably caught the scent of the food in his backpack and the purple rats are known to try to steal food from rookie trainers. A threatening growl from Hades ended that problem as the Rattata disappeared into a bush. The next species he saw was a family unit of Sentret standing on their tails keeping watch for predators, one of the younger ones had a half eaten berry in its hands so Ash thought he had probably interrupted their dinner as they jumped back into their den to avoid him.
The last new species he saw was a flopping Magikarp on the riverbank, he quickly went to help it back into the water. The red fish panicked as it was picked up and placed in the water but once he was back in, it quickly swam away. Again he had thought about catching this Pokemon but he quickly regained his senses. If the Magikarp evolved any time soon he'd definitely not have the experience to train a Gyarados and probably end up dead! Maybe when he had a few gym badges he'll go fishing he thought.
After a few hours of walking Ash decided to stop and eat, and to finally start training session number one.
Ash had Hades go through some of his moves to see if he had mastered them, first he had him use Leer on a local Rattata, which seemed to have an effect as the rodent scuttled into the underbrush as fast as its little legs could take it. Check he thought. He then had Hades fire his Ember at a rock to see how strong his inner fire was, the move looked bright and hot which was a sign of good health. Check. Next was howl, as Hades howled the canine looked somehow more confident and stronger. Check. Bite and Sucker punch were a little harder to test so he decided he would leave them for his first battle. A risky decision but he didn't really want to hurt a wild Pokemon for no reason. Ash had Hades begin physical training such as running and general exercise to boost his stamina and speed while Ash started to look into the moves Hades could learn on his Pokedex for the next step in his training.
He settled on a move called Roar, Hades already knew Howl so it shouldn't be too hard to learn. Especially as stated by his Pokedex, Houndour naturally use different calls and noises to communicate with their pack so it should be pretty natural to learn and use for them.
After around two hours of training, both Ash and Hades were exhausted. Hades gave one last try to execute Roar and it was pretty successful as any nearby Pokemon sprinted for the treeline. He would have to do it successfully a few times for Ash to call it battle ready but this one certainly still worked.
He decided to call it a night. He had made it about halfway to Viridian and got his first real training session in with his new partner. It was a good day. He set up camp and started a fire and got ready for bed.
"Hey Hades?" Ash whispered as he got into his bedroll
The Canine Pokemons ears perked up and he looked at his trainer
"Thanks for being my friend buddy. Wake me up if you hear anything get too close okay?"
Hades nodded. As his trainer drifted off into unconsciousness, he looked up at the stars. This was everything he had ever wanted. He would never let Ash down.
As Ash peacefully dreamt he was unaware of what was happening around him. Hades however was awoken by the sudden change of sounds. No longer did he hear the surrounding Pokemon calls and movement. There was only silence, he quickly woke and warned Ash by nipping at his arm.
"What's going on, it's still night out?" Ash worryingly asked before beginning to pack his stuff in a hurry
Houndour replied by panically pointing at a closeby tree with his snout and began to bark
Something was there.
As Ash finished and put out the fire he looked into the tree. Spearow. A lot of them. He had lost count after twenty. Spearow were known to be extremely territorial, and there has been stories of them even killing unfortunate people trespassing on their land. This was not good.
"Hades, run!" Ash started to sprint in the direction of Viridian City with Hades quickly on his tail.
The bodies of the Spearow began to fill the sky and the complete silence was replaced with a deafening caws and thunder and rain that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Ash covered his head and closed his eyes as the flock of Spearow pecked at him and his partner Pokemon. Hades tried his best with a few nicely shot Embers but the storm was weakening them and because they could only knock out a few at a time, Ash and Hades were still being overrun. There just seemed to be a never ending supply of them. As they ran for what felt like forever, Ash could feel his leg muscles began to seize up. He knew that the only way to end this was to fight. Before even thinking Ash had stopped and turned around to the flock. Hades did the same.
He looked at Hades simply for a second, but it was enough to completely explain what was going on. A Pokemon master does not run away.
As the Spearow began to divebomb, Ash shouted at the top of his lungs while pointing at the birds "Spearows! Do you know who I am? I'm Ash from the town of Pallet. I am destined to be the world's number one Pokémon Master! I can't be defeated by the likes of you! I'm going to capture and defeat you all. You hear me?!"
These words awakened something in the canine beside him. Before the birds could reach his trainer, Hades jumped in front of him and summoned the biggest roar he had ever done. The birds immediately stopped the dive and screeched in fear before they began to fly away from our two heroes.
Ash couldn't believe it. He slumped to the ground. His face and body was wrecked and he could feel blood seeping into his clothes from where he been pecked and cut. Hades settled down next to his trainer as his own cuts began to bleed. They both laid there for a while in a well deserved peacefulness. The rain began to slow down and day broke. As Ash looked to the sky he saw an unfamiliar Pokemon. He pointed his Pokedex at it.
Ho-Oh, The Legendary Rainbow Pokemon. Ho-Oh's feathers glow in seven colors depending on the angle at which they are struck by light. These feathers are said to bring happiness to the bearers. This Pokémon is said to live at the foot of a rainbow.
A Rainbow coloured feather fell from the bird and landed in Ash's lap. He couldn't believe it. He had just been graced by a Legendary Pokemon. He put the warm feather in his jacket and was immediately hit by warm feeling in his heart. .
Ash still looking at the Rainbow bird in the sky began to talk "Hades?"
The Houndour looked to his trainer and yipped
"This is gonna be one hell of an adventure"
So yeah Ash is starting with a Houndour in this story. Houndoom is my favourite Pokemon and I never thought he got the love he deserved so I thought it would be cool to see Ash have one. Thanks for reading my first chapter!