On an island in the country of Japan, there exists a small region called Kanto. Kanto is home to a fraction of the variety of creatures that inhabit the planet known as Pokémon. In this region, there are some Pokémon that are regarded by most as sacred, or even detrimental to the balance and order of the planet, called Legendaries. What most people don't know, however, is that the world doesn't always lie at their whim, and that they may call on a human, or even the smallest of common Pokémon, to aid them.

We begin with one of those Pokémon, though his fate was not always laid out as so. His fate is known to many as the partner, the companion. This story takes a different path...

On the outskirts of a city known to most as Viridian, a young Pichu struggled restlessly with his makeshift bed as he failed his attempt to find sleep. The Pichu lived alone in his small part of the woods, as he had no known family left. He would rather not dwell on their whereabouts, but his night terrors persisted in reminding him that he was on his own. This time the terrors came before his eyes could even rest, leaving himself to suffer another sleepless night. He eventually stopped trying and simply laid there still, facing upwards and staring past the canopy of the trees to the stars. Sadly, they did not distract him from his situation, as his momma would always tell him to look to the stars if he ever found himself lost.

Tears welled up in his eyes, and he promptly shut them. He thought he had cried enough. The Pikachus always told him never to cry. He just didn't understand it, though. His parents, they were taken away. Taken away by some... dumb humans! For no reason! Why would they take away his momma and papa?! It was cruel! It was evil!

He opened his eyes. Maybe that's what humans were! All humans! All of them were just cruel and evi-

At this point, fate unraveled...

The Pichu's ear twitched in mid-thought, distracting him from his anger and piquing his curiosity. There was a sound that came from the South, like a muffled 'boom'. He looked to the South, but found no aftermath or even a sign of an explosion of any sort. His natural wild instincts screamed in his mind, telling him to run as far away from the danger, yet his childlike curiosity won out in favor of finding out what the source of the mysterious explosion was. He figured that he wasn't getting any sleep anyway, so he might as well...

The Pichu got out of his bed of grass and wandered South, still remembering the caution to watch out for any other lingering wild Pokemon. After several moments of walking, another sound came from the direction he was heading, this time it was a very low-pitched 'whomp!' He had to be very close with how loud it was.

The sound, however, brought him out of his curious trance, and as he kept walking, he noticed just how dark the woods surrounding him were. The shadows behind the trees glared at him menacingly, daring him to reveal his fear and weakness. He could almost hear them growling a deep, predatory rumble at his presence, and their cold stares reinforced that illusion.

He shivered and cowered but kept soldiering on as he hung onto the thought that he was getting closer to the source. The fear was strong, though, as he couldn't keep the tears from coming down his face once more.

The woods' soul-crushing coldness soon took its toll on the child's mind, and the Pichu began to sprint, bawling a fearful cry of "Piiiiiiiiiiii!" as he ran. The woods appeared as if they were closing in upon him, maws wide open as they fall upon their prey...

Pichu's cries were interrupted abruptly as he tripped on a root protruding from the ground and tumbled through a line of bushes into open grass, leaving him dazed and disoriented. He took a few moments to wait for the sky to stop spinning before he noticed light coming in from beyond his vision. He shifted his head to see a building that stood only a few feet away, shining a warm yellowish-orange from the nearest window.

The Pichu no longer felt the cold of the woods behind him. There was now only the comforting feeling of the summer air that filled the night. The light from the building seemed to beckon him closer with its warmth, inviting him to look inside and see what the building had to offer, and he could only gladly comply.

The window was only two feet off the ground and had a ledge that jutted out enough for him to stand on. He leaped up to the ledge, managing to catch himself on the ledge and pull himself up. He looked back down to the ground, and only then did he realise that he had jumped his own height from a standing position, a feat that impressed himself. He turned back around to the window, and his eyes widened as he saw the interior.

The inside of the building was simply a massive room with an impressive amount of space in the middle. Most of the floor was cracked, dry earth, made somehow significant with the white markings of ordered lines, circles and rectangles. That was only the first thing he noticed. Also in the room were two very large Pokémon bashing heads and grappling each other in the center of the room, one being what he recognized as a Nidoking, from what he could remember of his mother's descriptions, and the other being a massive orange dragon-beast with a raging fire on its tail. He could only recognize their fighting as a battle for dominance, and yet... they had something else in their movements. It was almost like an awareness. A strategy.

"C'mon, Charizard! I know you can find an opening!"

Pichu turned his attention to the voice: a human! What stupid human would stand so close to these clashing behemoths?! Momma always said that doing so meant you were impeding on both of their territories! Did he want to die?!

But when the Charizard glanced back, he did not stop and rage. The Charizard only acknowledged the human by nodding and continued the struggle with his opponent, seeming even more determined than before to put down the Nidoking and claim what was his. Pichu gaped in amazement as new questions arose in his mind, too fast for coherency. For some reason, the dragon actually appeared to be listening to the human. He couldn't fathom why such powerful Pokémon would choose to fight under their command!

Eventually, the Charizard did find an opening. As Nidoking tried to shuffle into a better position, Charizard shifted more weight in his direction, causing the Nidoking to fail his balance and fall back. Charizard immediately took advantage, adjusting his hold and locking in his opponent. He took flight and lifted Nidoking with him, rising swiftly and steadily despite the Nidoking struggling.

The human he noticed called out to the dragon. "Yes! That's it! Get as high as you can!"

The Charizard kept rising until he nearly reached the ceiling. He then stopped, waiting patiently for the human's next command.

Pichu also waited with bated breath.

The human then grinned. "Now! Sky Drop!"

Charizard promptly released his hold, letting the other Pokémon fall to an inevitably messy-

The Nidoking then disappeared in a flash of red light, accompanied by a sound not unlike the sheathing of a sword.

On the far end of what could've been considered Nidoking's half of the room stood another human, this one taller and, Pichu supposed, scarier. His presence gave the impression that he owned the room, literally and figuratively. In his hand was a red and white ball-like device, glowing red on its small button.

Pichu officially decided that his view of what was possible needed to be adjusted if that thing was holding the Nidoking.

The taller human grinned towards the shorter one. It was a bit unsettling, but then he spoke. "Congratulations. You've beaten me."

It was said with such ice that it almost felt like the window grew colder.

"You've beaten me, but only by so much," he said as he raised one of his hands with his finger and thumb barely apart from each other. "And I'm afraid that won't amount to much once you get to Victory Road." He closed his eyes and shook his head with a chuckle. "The way I see it, you might as well just take your winnings and go home, maybe start an apricorn farm and sell homemade Pokéballs to passing trainers, hm?"

The shorter human looked down, shaking in what must have been rage.

Taller chuckled again. "I see I've struck a nerve. Please leave my gym." He then dropped something shiny to the floor and turned to walk away.

Pichu couldn't believe the gall of this human! He had half a mind to walk in there himself and-

"HA!" came a shout from the shorter human. "If I was so easy to put down like that, then I would've given up when I failed my first gym." He looked up, revealing the smirk on his face. "But I didn't. Getting this far should prove that I don't quit easily."

The taller man turned back to face him, this time with a full smile on his face. "Somehow, I'm no longer surprised when all of my victors say the same thing." He strode back over to the object he dropped, and somehow managed to kick it back up into his hand. He looked it over and gave it a quick shine with his sleeve. "But I'm not any less disappointed when the lesson gets through." He approached the shorter human and placed the object into his hands with a steady and firm shake. "You have an ambition. One you can follow to the ends of the earth to achieve. It's not enough to simply be good at something. What makes us is our drive to pull through, no matter what odds stand in our way. We are humans with the power to achieve what many deem unachievable, and it is our drive to grasp at our desires that make us. Our drives to be the best."

And at that moment, Pichu's fate was secured. Time stopped for the young Pokémon, and he found his new purpose, one he felt absolutely determined to fulfill. He wanted to be what all these humans have a chance to be. He wanted to put himself on their level and show to the world that what made him was his own drive to be the best. The very best there ever was.

In another place, quite a ways from the region of Kanto, the walls within the Hall of Origin changed...

[Please criticise constructively. I may not know if I've missed anything.]

[This idea came about as a combination of many of inspirations taken from several of Saphroneth's stories, and even a little bit of 1KidsEntertainment's PokeAbriged, mixed with some contemplation of how Pikachu's character relies a great deal on him being Ash's companion, and really it's all based on his loyalty to him as a good friend. I wondered how I could flesh out such a potential character without the dependency holding him back.

And so we come to this.

If it wasn't obvious, Pikachu (or Pichu, at the moment) wants to be the very best, and while he doesn't quite know it yet, the best way to do that is by challenging the league. So, he'll do that. Pikachu himself will come across at least five other Pokémon (some old, some new) to befriend and challenge the league with as, not a trainer, but independent Pokémon on equal ground.

Some basic elements will seem like I've ripped them straight from other stories, but I hadn't read them prior to conceptualizing this, and I plan on implementing them as uniquely as possible. There'll definitely be some surprising and entertaining reveals, I assure you. Thank you.]