Start
A/N:- This is one of my latest series which I am starting. Now you might ask, why start a new series all of a sudden when you already have a lot of pending projects? Mmmmm...you are right! But the thing is, working on a single project is very tiresome. I need some fresh air to work. It doesn't mean that I'm abandoning my all the series, NO CERTAINLY NOT! But the delay in the update might be there!
As for this story(which is obvious from the title) revolves around the main character Ash, starting his journey. Now, you know it's ME who is working on it and by now if you are a regular reader of my fanfic, you know the genre of this fanfic as well(or you might figure out from the tags of this fanfic)...Anyways, if you are still aren't familiar enough, read first and second chapter and decide for yourself.
LET GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!
Pallet Town, the land where the renowned Professor Oak resides, the land which no one would know if he wasn't there, the land which is very insignificant yet enriching for all the people who have once visited that place, the land where our protagonist; Ash Ketchum was born and will start his journey.
A few days later
It was morning and the sun was high on the sky. An angry mother yelled from the stairways, "Ashton Ketchum! Wake up now or you will not get your starter pokemon" with a spatula in her hand. She looked little worn out and though he should have learnt to wake up on his own by that time!
He snapped off from his sleep and looked at the electrode alarm clock to check the time. "Oh! I'm late!", he shouted in horror and somehow gushed out of the room and ran to the stairs. But due to one slip on the smooth staircase, he fell down with the thud sound. "Ouch!", he exclaimed while clenching his butt-cheek. "See, that's what happen if you sleep late before the day you need to wake up early...Breakfast is ready", his mom came with a similar worn out tired mom's face and lectured. When he got up, she called him for his breakfast.
Instead of listening to her, he came straight out from his house on his night pajamas and ran to the Oak's lab and assured, "I'll eat when I'll get my pokemon!" loud enough for her to hear. After a minute of running hastily, he appeared in front of his door. Fortunately Oak was outside, watering some pokemon, caught his attention and asked, "Are you the last person who suppose to start their journey from today?", he asked politely.
Ash was panting like crazy after a mile of marathon and was able to nod his head. "Well I'm afraid, all the starters are already taken by their trainers", he added with a slight tint of pity in his voice.
He looked at him with wide open eyes which showed how lost he was when he heard it. "That's what happen when someone doesn't come one time. Responsibility is one the key fundamentals of being a pokemon trainer and be begins before they get any pokemon", he added again, trying to make him understand.
Ash was then completely hopeless at that point yet he asked, "Are there any pokemon which I can take. I mean any pokemon! I don't care how hard it is for me to train it, I will take it" entreatingly. Yet again the professor echoed, "No, I don't have" to him. He then felt lonely and shuddered at the thought of not starting his pokemon journey which he always dreamed about. His dreams and passion all shattered into pieces in one line. And if he start his training next year, all of his rivals would have a year's experience as an advantage. He could challenge a newcomer like him as in their eyes, he would look like an experienced trainer and would always avoid any battle or if he does challenge his rivals, he would be defeated easily! And it looked like he couldn't change any of them.
Suddenly some yellow light came flashing out from the sides of the door and a noise along with it. Professor Oak got startled and told, "Goodness gracious! What she did now?!", to himself and ran down to the source. Ash being a little curious, went inside and followed him shortly after. They reached his lab where he could see a light projection like thing of a thing, going here to there while emitting electric current. Professor Oak put on a pair of rubber gloves and prepared his stance like he was catching a ball!
"Pikachu! You come here this instant!", he called her loudly as he could. Ash immediately realised that there was a pokemon which he was hiding and not letting him to have. Perhaps if he managed to tame her, he would let him have her! So he closely looked at her movements and which a second repeat of it, he caught her. But his lack of insulation resulted in a severe jolt of electric current running down his whole body.
"Ash! Leave her or else you would be killed", the professor warned him anxiously as he was coming to take her away from him. "NO, I would not leave her until you give me the permission to take her with me", he cried and clutched her even harder. "This is nuts! At this rate, you'll die. Leave her alone and we'll discuss about this later, okay", he shouted with very much concern for the boy. She would surely kill him if he didn't leave her!
"First say 'yes' then I'll leave her", he demanded even in his pain and even when he was talking for his good. He would not let his last change to go away anyhow!
Through all that time, Pikachu watched him from a spectator's point of view. She was annoyed of him for letting her free but somehow she felt a bit complete which she felt when she was with her parents, with him. All the earlier trainers weren't close to him by a long shot when it comes to this feeling which he was providing. She quit her electric current which let him to loose conscious and fell flat down on the floor!
A few hours later, he found himself lying on a sofa of a living room which a piece of wet cloth on his forehead. By the looks of it, that place felt like the hall of the research facility. He turned his head and found his mom sitting by his side. When she realised he woke up, she told, "Ash, thank goodness, you are ok" and quickly sprang from her seat to hug him. "You know how hard it was for me to believe that you got so stubborn that you wouldn't let that Pikachu off from you and get electrocuted! How often I told you if anything ever happened to you, I cannot forgive myself for it. I already was against of you to go on this pokemon training, yet then I accepted as I believe you won't do something which will hurt me...But if you do this kind of stunts, how can I allow you", she scolded mournfully while also crying on him. He felt guilty for making her cry like that but he couldn't help it anyway.
Pikachu from the edge of the looked at him. She was full aware of what she did and she was sorry for it also but she didn't had the courage to go to him. Luckily, Ash saw her and called, "Pikachu!", happily.
She was shocked by his manners, how he called her after all he did. It felt like it didn't matter to him one bit! She came inside and slowly walked to him. Delia looked at her and yelled, "Stay away from my son", like a yandere mother. He looked at her and said, "You don't have to worry about her mother. She won't hurt me anymore...right?", he soothed her politely and asked for confirmation from her. She nodded and continued to walk to him. When she came to his sofa, Delia was on the highest level of protectiveness, Ash sat on it and lifted her up close him and hugged her.
Delia still kept her instincts on the high, observing her mood and movement. A few minutes later, she was convinced that she won't hurt him. Professor Oak entered the room while announcing, "Being responsible is one of the fundamental aspects of being a pokemon trainer, the other is trust between the pokemons and their trainer. It is this bond that lets each other push them to their fullest potentials to reach their shared goal", and meant specifically to Ash. He sheepishly nodded while rubbing his back of his head.
He took a seat on another sofa and said, "Delia, you don't need to worry. Your Ash may not be the most polished trainers out there but he does know what he is doing and also knows what is good for his pokemons. That alone is enough for him to be classified as a trainer" with a smile on his face.
Ash and Pikachu's eyes sparkled with hope and he asked, "Does that mean...", him and couldn't finish his statement. He was gasped by the though of that it could mean. At it, he nodded happily and answered, "Yes, you can choose her as your starter pokemon and you are from now classified as a Pokemon Trainer", cheerfully and handed him over his Pokedex which contain his ID and a mean to understand unknown pokemons and six pokeballs out of which he told one belonged to Pikachu.
"So let's get started buddy!", he brightly told her and was getting up, but he couldn't stand and fell on the sofa. Others in the room quickly grabbed him. "Ash, you can't start from today. Your body has gone through a lot! Rest for now and start your journey from tomorrow", he told him humbly. He wanted to deny it by the look on his mother couldn't compel him to voice it out. She was already heartbroken and he had gone against them, he could no longer return to her ever.
"Ok, if you say so", he replied as an effect of oppressive pressure. He looked at his pokemon and said, "Looks like we can't start from today. I'm sorry", he apologised to her softly. Pikachu immediately felt his emotion and vehemently countered, "It is not your fault. It's for me you can't start our journey", and nudged on his chest.
Later that day, Ash came back home and found that his breakfast was still on the table. Delia wanted to warm it up for him but he ate it without any regret or complain. Soon the night fallen on the sky and everyone was on their bed. Pikachu was with him, sleeping on his side. Then at midnight, Pikachu's eyes opened up abruptly. It seemed like some bad dream she had seen. From that point, she was just turning left and right to figure out a sleeping position for her.
She looked at Ash who was sleeping soundly and wasn't affected in anyway. It made her smile for some odd reason. She then decided she would have some water before she would go back to her sleep. Since water was not available in his room, she noiselessly opened the door and went out. After climbing down the stairs, she found Delia on the couch reading a book. She noticed her and said, "Even you can't sleep, can you?", to her in whispering voice. But due to no obstruction at that time, it sounded pretty loud and clear to her.
She nodded and came down the stairs completely. "Would you like to join me for a little chat?", Ash's mom asked. Pikachu nodded without any hesitation and went to her. She jumped up and took a seat beside her.
"Well...you and Ash are going to start your journey from tomorrow", she began, failing to come up with a better line to begin with. "Yea", she replied while nodding her head. It would mark as a great day for them. Delia took her hands into hers and requested, "Pikachu, please take care of Ash" to her. She nodded after saying, "Sure", in her own way. She let her hands leave hers and added, "Thank you Pikachu, that means a lot to me" while letting a small tear loose from her eye.
She took a few moment before she continued, "You know when Ash was small, he used to say he wanted to be a pokemon trainer like his father and would glorify him by becoming a Pokemon Master. But I was against it from the start. It was not like I did not believe that he would be a good pokemon trainer, in fact I knew he would be even better than his father But...", at here she choked herself. It was hard for her to talk any further. Pikachu became worried and tried to help her as she could do. But little did she know, she choked not because of any illness...it was her memory.
"He is the only remaining member of my family. I cannot bear anything which would hurt him. That is why I was scared of you when I learned what you have done to Ash!", in her last statement, she looked at her. It definitively upset her for making her so sad. She petted her a bit and again continued, "That is why I was always against it. But Ash I saw him playing with pokemons, I soon started to realise it might be a bad idea to not let him do what he wants, so I allowed him later".
Pikachu could then finally conclude everything from there. Pikachu walked to her and patted on her leg while gesturing she would take take his full responsibility. Delia smiled and hugged her after it.
Next day arrived, Ash was all ready, along with his Pikachu. "Be sure to call me when you reach to Viridian City", she asked them and she waved them as they start their journey.
After crossing a sizable distance, he asked his buddy, "Shall we catch some pokemons?" to her. She in her energised voice marked by some electricity when she landed on the ground in her battle stance. Ash concentrated on his senses and focused on all the directions for one trace of a pokemon. Upon carefully looking, he found a pidge. "Pikachu, use quick attack on Pidge", he commanded.
She used the move but instead of hitting it, she missed the accuracy and at some distance hit a flock of spearows hiding in the all seemed annoyed by her intrusion and rampaging there. She tried to apologise to them but they were very angry at that time and chased after her when she ran out from them.
"Pikachu! What's wron... Yikes! Come here Pikachu, quick", he first casually asked her, seeing her running hurriedly but when he noticed a flock of angry spearows. He ran to their opposite direction, guiding her to follow him.
Time skip
We find them wet and tired and was laid on the grass while looking at the sky. It was really a heck of a deal to run continuously and to attack them so that they couldn't attack them. "Looks like we passed them, at least for now",he exhaled out and looked at his buddy. He touched her and found her body to be very warm than she usually does, and she was still panting. He picked her up and continued to run in the direction where the river was flowing. Upon running a distance, he met a girl fishing on the river and a bike parked on the side of the road. Without saying anything, he moved to that bike and yelled at her, "If this bike belongs to you, I'll return it ones I admit my Pikachu in Pokemon Center", and took of with her bike.
The girl from the bank of the river yelled at him, "What! Wait...", she trailed off while following them.
Ash cycled as fast as he could while taking some glimpses of his Pikachu on the front basket. "Hang a bit longer. I'll take you to the Pokemon center as soon as possible", he managed to comfort her as he could. Pikachu was lost in his kind words. It was, maybe the first time that a human talked to her like that. He almost sounded like he was talking to a human friend, not a pokemon. It was a kind of a forgotten sensation which she used to cheer all the time.
Ash continued to pedal harder and harder to increase his velocity as much as possible. While going, he tumbled upon a pebble and he lost his control over the bike. He thus fell on the ground along with Pikachu. He could then hear that flock of spearows above their heads. They were following them through all that time.
Ash found himself helpless again. He had no other pokemon to attack them. Pikachu was already in a fatal state and he must not ask her to fight them. He so had only one last chance to save her. He turned to her, took her pokeball out and placed it in front of her. He then looked at her and softly said, "Pikachu, go into your pokeball. I know Professor Oak has told me you don't like pokeballs but this is an emergency. From here on, I'll take care of them", he stood up soullessly and faced them with defiant looks on his face. "I'm Ash Ketchum from pallet town and someday I'm going to become a world class pokemon master. If you want someone to get your revenge, take me", he announced determinedly.
Thunder clashed in the sky, a few drops of rain felt on the ground and the spearows were ready for the target. With one command from the front, the whole army charged to him like fighter jets. Ash broadened his area to prevent her from getting hurt.
Meanwhile, Pikachu looked at her trainer. He was abut to sacrifice himself for her sake! He cannot do that. His mother would be the most worried and the first person to get devastated at this news. He cannot do that!
Pikachu tired to move her body but it failed to interact with her mind. She saw how bravely he committed to save her, at the cost of his own life. She also got remembered how his mother personally requested her to take care of him all the time in place of her but there, she was failing on her first call!
She cannot just lay there and watch him die on her, she CAN'T DO! She felt a sudden rise of uncalled energy, boosting her metabolic movement and she ran to her, forgetting all her injuries, pains and burns. She jumped on him and again jumped to fight those hundreds of spearows, with on one but herself. When she prepared her electric move and was about to launch it to them, a thunder landed on her, boosting all the characteristics of her attack and launched it in a Juggernaut fashion.
As expected, the birds got their lesson and flew off when they got their senses back. He quickly put out his hands to catch his beloved partner and praised, "You did a wonderful job buddy" but she was not in her senses to listen to that. From there he quickly ran in his direction to the Pokemon Center.
A few minutes later, that redhead girl appeared and found her bike was nothing but a piece of electrocuted junk. She was then heavily pissed for that and took it with her to the pokemon center to give him a good lesson on that.
In the Pokemon Center
Ash had already deposited Pikachu to Nurse Joy, for which she scold him thoroughly as she presumed her condition was due to his ruthless training. He took that silently since he wanted to start her medication as soon as she could. After she took her with her, he decided to call his mom, because he was in the Viridian City.
He dialed and waited for her to pick it up. A few moments later, his mom took the call where it showed her with a towel on her head. "Mom, I've reached the Viridian City", he told her with no cheery look. His mom listened to that but immediately inquired, "Honey, what has happened to you? Why are you so dirty?", worriedly. Their was stains of mud all over his body and a few burn marks on his skin.
Ash got tongue-tiled at her expression. It would not be good for her to hear what actually went through him. So he lied, "I'm just training with my Pikachu. That's all", to her. She didn't object it and concluded, "Honey, you must now change your clothes right away. Check, I've packed a pair of clothe extra in your bag. You must also brush your teeth regularly and REGULARLY change your underwear", with a set of instructions for him to follow. She giggled a bit when she made the final instruction.
Ash blushed in embarrassment instantly after she said. Lucky for him as no one was there to listen to her. "Mom! You shouldn't say things like these!", he uttered in his current state. But she laughed a bit longer and said, "Honey, I know you will do but it's a mother's job to remind these things. Anyways, call me when you reach to the Pewter City", and ended the call.
When she ended, she visible looked pale and worried about him. She wasn't fool to believe what he told was fully true. She could tell just from looking at his face, something terrible happened to him and he was hiding it from her. "Arceus, please protect my child. He is the only one whom I have", she prayed to the God truly of her feelings.
Back with Ash, he was waiting for Nurse Joy to return with his Pikachu and was then resting a bit on the sofa. Suddenly a savage looking redhead girl with a charcoaled bike on her back, entered the Center and looked for Ash. When she found him, she yelled, "There you are!", and quickly ran to his place. Ash up a finger on his lips and said, "Silent! Nurse Joy is currently treating my Pikachu and she will get disturbed", imperatively.
She stopped shouting and when she reached, she put down her bike. "How is it?", she asked politely to him. He looked down and replied, "I don't know. Nurse Joy took her with her and I've not got any report. She was in a pretty bad condition when I took her here", worryingly. She was also upset at is news but one look at her bike got her remembered why she came there in the first place.
"Mister, I don't know what happened back there but due to that, MY bike got electrocuted and I cannot use it now", she complained in feisty. Ash took a look at her bike and could tell she wasn't kidding. So he assured, "Ok, I'll buy you a new bike", her. At that news, her eyes sparkled with glitters and she knew what all the current models are and how they were vastly superior to her own model.
She then greedily asked, "When will you buy it?" him. She was hoping when his Pikachu would return, he would take her to the bike shop. "Wait, I'll have to challenge some trainers and gym leaders before I can buy you your bike", he replied rather plainly. And with that, all her anticipation went down to nothing! However she though he couldn't just afford a bike like buying other items since they cost a ton, not to mention the increased prices of latest models. If she want the best, she need to wait it a bit longer.
Time passed on on until it was eight o'clock and Nurse Joy came back with revived Pikachu. She on the sight of Ash, jumped on him on his shoulder. "Pikachu!", Ash called while petting her head. "Pikapi!", she cried when she nuzzled on his cheek.
Nurse Joy looked at them and said, "Now look, don't ever train her like this or else non of my sisters going to heal her", and again ran some fits over him. He said nothing and turned towards Misty. She was a bit confused what she meant by it and asked him. "Actually Nurse Joy is thinking that her injured state was due to my ruthless training on her, so she scold me", he explained her clearly.
Her question was answered but it raised a few more, "Then what happened?", curiously. He sighed and replied, "In short, while we were trying to catch our first pokemon, Pikachu accidentally hit a flock of spearows. And they chased us till the end. The rest of it, you know" in short. It then made a complete sense to her of what he was doing. He wasn't a bad guy, he truly wanted to save his Pikachu!
Ash looked outside and saw it was already dark outside. He again looked at her and replied, "Let's book a room for today and from tomorrow we'll continue" to her. She nodded. Thus he booked two rooms and spend the night there.
In the next day, they arrived at the Viridian Forest. They stopped at the entrance. Ash and Pikachu took deep breath before going in while Misty's legs were shivering. He looked at her and asked, "What happened Misty?", plainly. It couldn't be like she was afraid of going in the forest, could it? She mechanically turned her head towards him and said, "I hate BUG pokemons and so I hate forests" in radge.
It bugged him a lot and suggested, "Then you might go home and give me your address. I'll deliver it to your directly", with a bit of annoyance. By her appearance, she looked at a pokemon trainer but the way she handled that situation, made him conclude it wasn't the case. At it, she claimed herself down and looked, "No wait! I can't trust you that you will remember to return my bike ever. I'll come with you until you give me my bike", and later told him.
"Suit yourself", he replied before entering into the forest. They continued to walk into the forest with Misty following closely with Ash. Every single sound in the forest was creeping her out. An hour or so when and no pokemon they came across. The trio sat under a tree and panted a bit. She asked Ash, "Do you something to eat?", tiredly. He replied, "No, I've not bought any", sadly.
That made her even more hungry. Her stomach growled in need of fool, what which she blushed in embarrassment. Ash wanted to laugh but his own tummy growled in similar fashion. They looked around in search of a tree with fruits. After a few minutes to struggling, they found two trees with two different fruits hanging out on them. Misty choose the later and rushed to it like she had never seen any food. Ash took his own tree and looked at the tree. Should he consume those wild fruits. They weren't like any of those which sell in the market or he ever saw. He tried to think it out but his tummy wasn't going to listen a bit.
"Wow! These fruits are so tasty! I can have it all day", she exclaimed from her side and jugging in as much as she could. That left him with even less logical quarried in him and grabbed one of them and took a bite. It was good nonetheless and finished his first fruit.
"AAAAAAAAAA...", cried Misty at the top of her voice. Ash quickly ran to her and found her agonising in some sort of pain. "Misty! What happened?", he quarried frantically. She couldn't answer at all. Instead she lost her consciousness. Ash was frightened at the scene. How he should handle that situation? But suddenly, her whole body started to glow in pure dazzling white colour and her whole figure started to shrink in size. A few moments later, her glowing was stopped and a pokemon was there in her place.
Ash took out his pokedex and scanned that pokemon. It said, "Vaporeon; the bubble jet pokemon. They live close to water. It's long tail ridged with a fin which his often mistaken for a mermaid" and showed a picture of it.
It slowly started to move it's body and opened it's eyes. It looked at Ash and Pikachu, who according to it seemed bigger than ever! "Ash, Pikachu! Why are you looking so big?", it asked while it was shocked.
Ash when heard it, he was even more shocked, "Misty! You have turned into a Vaporeon! And. And. I can understand you" and expressed it to her. She quickly ran a spec on her whole body and indeed she was turned into a Vaporeon. "How id it happened to me?", she asked at the binge of crying. Pikachu looked around and found a piece of board hidden under the dried leaves and indicated Ash to look at it. He took out the board and he noticed something was written on it.
She looked suspicious at the looks in his face and asked him to read. "Prithee consume not the fruit of this tree. This is a curs'd tree. Whosoev'r human consume t wouldst turneth into a pokemon" he narrated. For the half of the time, none of them could understand the meaning of it. "This is a very old language but as far as I can tell; this is a cursed tree and you shouldn't have eat it", he concluded. He felt little sad for her could tell she wasn't feeling any good out of it.
"I guess even your tree is also cursed. That is why you can understand me after eating your fruit", he added to his conclusion. They ran to his place and searched for a similar type of board. When he found it, he read, "Prithee doth not consume the fruit of this tree. This is a curs'd tree. Whosoev'r human art t, shall und'rstand pokemon language at the cost if his did diminish lifespan" it out to them. That time nothing was understandable nor predictable.
"I guess the best this is take these fruits to a researcher and get examined by them", he concluded and gathered some of the fruits of it. "I don't understand why not they cut these trees in the first place?!", asked by a new voice. Ash turned around and found there was no one but Misty and Pikachu. But it couldn't be Misty as he knows her voice, could it be... He looked down to his buddy, "Did you say something?", he asked her. Pikachu, knowing the matter, she giggled and responded, "Yea" to him. He was again shocked and uttered, "I can even understand you Pikachu", to her.
Later, he picked up the other kind of fruit and was ready to move on, "Are we going to the Professor Oak's lab?", Misty asked intriguingly. He nodded in the sideways and replied, "No Misty, we can't go there. We need to find some other professor", sadly. She was about to ask why but Pikachu added, "We can't go mainly because he would take back Ash's license of a pokemon trainer. His mother strictly told him NOT to be in any kind of danger. If she finds it out that he is in some kind of curse, she would never let him out of his house".
Misty somewhere in her heart felt sad and said, "His mom sure do take a lot of care about him", inferring from her statement. Pikachu nodded as she was the one of the first first-handedly saw it.
"Anyways, I was thinking", he announced, cutting the current topic from them. They looked at him when he said. He bend down to Misty and continued, "Would you like be my first caught pokemon...at least till the time we figure out a way to turn you back to normal", politely and giving her a pokeball. She was immediately put off by that idea and yelled, "How do you expect me to become your pokemon? I'm a human and not a pokemon" at him.
He got irritated and countered, "I don't know, maybe any random person may come and catch you and you can't deny them, unless you defeat them. And if they get you by any chance, your chance of recovery is close to none" with his rational thinking. At that point, she wasn't able to counter him. He was right on point. At the end, she gave up and decided to be his pokemon.
He was overjoyed and quickly caught her in her pokeball. When it was finalised, she popped out and shuddered, "I never want to go that dumb pokeball EVER!", sarcastically. He understood her problem and suggested, "You can stay out like Pikachu if you want" and unexpectedly hugged her. She blushed at his body contact but couldn't resist that feeling.
"Why did you hug me?", she asked in her same state. Ash didn't catch that and replied, "Because from now onwards, you are a part of my big family" to her and marched forward. She was gasped at the thought of 'family'. She longed it for so long that it seemed forever and then, it was the time when she was finally accepted as a family member. "Follow us quick or else you will lag behind", Pikachu shouted when they crossed a distance from her.
Some half a hour later, Pikachu asked, "What are plans for now?", him while she was riding on him. He put some thought in that and said, "As of now, I want to challenge the first gym leader but I don't really know anything about it", with comical despair look on his face. "Well Ash, the first gym from here would be the Pewter City Gym. The gym leader is Brock and his specialty is rock type pokemons", she explained as she walked along side of him. He and Pikachu was very impressed by her and praised, "Wow Misty, you know a lot about the gyms. Were you a trainer like me?", and he asked.
She blushed a bit and was then confused whether to tell him that or not. She could only say, "Yea, I was a trainer" to him. She looked at him with a serious look and told, "By the way, we need one more pokemon in your team to challenge Brock", him. He look at her for more info. "He uses two pokemons but he doesn't battle unless his challenger does have three pokemons or more...And anyways, I'm not fit for battle anyhow", she explained to him and counted herself off. She could walk and all battle...she didn't even know how to call a move.
That made him worry. He need to find a pokemon soon, at least to make himself eligible to battle him. He searched from bushes to canopies but nothing got his luck. Man! Where did all pokemons gone? "We need to find a pokemon soon...", he murmured. When he and all his friends could hear a faint cry. He stopped for a moment and concentrated to get the direction of it. It gave another faint cry and that was enough for him to locate it. Upon arrival, he came across a pokemon, white in colour, dark blue face with a horn like thing sticking out open. Same coloured tail and claws. He took his pokedex out and scanned it. The pokedex read, "No data found" with a cross mark on the screen.
He was more surprised than intrigued to know that. How could a pokedex not have all the pokemons known to available everywhere. But then it cried again. He noticed a small pin was stuck in one of it's paws. He came out of the bush and tried to walk to it. Immediately it hissed, "Stay away from me", angrily.
He put his hands up and said, "We came here to help you" with concern. Pikachu and Misty followed him shortly after afterwards. It looked at it's pokemons. They seemed harmless but it couldn't trust them either. Again at a sudden twitch in it's paw let it out an another cry. It tried to do it itself be it's paws weren't capable enough to handle small pointy objects like that.
He again stepped in and deliberately repeated, "Please let me help you" with a caring gesture towards it. Pikachu along with him asked, "Why are you so afraid of taking his help?", it little irately. It looked at her and replied, "I don't trust humans at all. They are the reason for what happened to me", in grief.
He got little curious and asked, "What happened to you?", while bending to its level. "You can understand Pokemon language?!", it uttered in shock. He rubbed his back the head in embarrassment. "It's a long story...anyways, tell us why you hate humans?", he changed back to the current topic. It had teary eyes before it could began, "I was kidnapped by some humans and they even killed my mom and dad. They said I could be sold at a high price so they brought me here. I somehow managed to escape them but got lost in this forest", to tell him. No doubt why it was so scared of humans.
Ash gritted his teeth and replied, "Look, I'm not like those people and never will. My dream is to become a Pokemon Master, which also means to understand all kinds of pokemons all around the world. So let me help you" to it softly and proceeded to get to it. "No. Stop...wait!", it uttered horrifically when Ash grabbed it's injured paw with both of his hands. In defence, it bite his one of his arm.
Pikachu and Misty were shocked to see him going to that extent to help it out. Pikachu came running down to him with electricity sparking on her red dots. "Pikachu wait! Don't come now!", he ordered her. She quickly put down her breaks and stood in her position. He then faced it and softy said, "It won't take much time and you will feel no pain after it" to it and with a count of three, he took it out.
As soon as he did it, it felt a sheer jolt of pain for an instant and griped it's bite even harder, to the point blood was coming like a stream. Without caring about his own bit, he ordered, "Pikachu, Misty, give me bandage from my first aid kit and potion from my bag. Look in the outer most pockets", them quickly. They ran to his bag which he had left before going to it.
He looked back to it and patted on its head and said, "Don't worry. Everything will get fine" with a smile on his face. It was tranquillised by his benevolent and his kind hearted nature that it almost made it forget what humans did to it and its parents. His pokemons arrived with all the necessary items he required and started it's medication. He sprayed the potion on its paw, which made it tighten its grip on him again carefully as he could, bandaged it around it's paw.
Soon it started to feel less pain, in turn let lose its grip on Ash. He quickly wrapped around his injured hand with the help of his single hand and help from Pikachu to. It was then his time to agonise in pain. Blood was still coming out and drenched the whole dressing. All the pokemons there worried about him, especially Pikachu and that new pokemon.
"Sorry, I can't use heal pulse to heal your wound", it mewed. Pikachu thought of giving an another layer of bandage but later she thought it wouldn't cure his injury.
"Why don't you use your pure water Vaporeon", adviced a pokemon, not part of that gang. It crawled towards them beside Misty. When she saw it, she wasn't nearly as scared as she used to be and was rather calm around it. Pikachu answered in her place, "She doesn't know how to use her powers", which strangely made her feel guilty. She was originally a human and shouldn't have the knowledge of using a particular move.
It was shocked very much be not prying anymore it instructed, "First focus on yourself, especially your inner core", directly looking at her. She without a second thought did as it said. "Concentrate and you will see a bright orb in you", it added and paused. When she found it, she nodded and opened her eyes. "Use that to mould it into an attack. For now a water related move", it told her.
She knew which moves vaporeon could use but don't know exactly know how they pull those off. "Use your instincts and imaginations, I'm sure you can do it. After all your species is called the holy maiden pokemon of water", it gave her the advice which she needed from the look from her face then.
She was flattered for some reason when it made that comment. She never knew that fact. With that spirit in her will, she once again concentrated on herself and took control over that energy orb inside her. She decide to use water gun at slow pace. She took some air in and fired her water gun slowly on his wounded hand.
At first instance, he felt a strong pain from her water but he kept it enduring until he started to feel little relief. With her clean water, it also washed Ash's corrupted blood stuck on his hand. It wouldn't allow any germ or bacteria to spawn on him. After a quite a time of relentless water ejecting out from her mouth, he came to a point where his hand felt almost no pain. Ash moved his hand away from the spot and used his free hand to pat her head. "Thank you Misty for saving my life", kindly. Strangely enough, she felt good when he did that and wished him to continue for little more and an urge to get his respect on her.
He turned to that unknown pokemon and, "Thank you Caterpie for teaching Misty how to use her move. Without you we would be in a great trouble", showed his gratitude to the bug pokemon. It laughed whole-heartedly as it's figure would permit and told him, "Please don't thank me, I have not done anything that special. Anyways, take care of yourselves", and parted away from them.
Then all their focus when back to that pokemon. It was feeling awful for what it had done to him, even though he was really trying to help it. "If you do want to repay him for what he had done and you have done, become his pokemon", the yellow rodent advised it from the look of it's face. Ash also heard it and felt she was little hard on it. He said, "Look if you don't want to join us, it's fine but you will always be welcomed here" to it politely. Pikachu puffed to see him being so gentle with it. He should have been little rude for his sake.
It thought of quitting them but...after all what it did, it need to repay him somehow. It nodded and said, "I want to become a part of your team. Please let me in" to him. He smiled and took out a pokeball and gently tapped on it. It went inside and after the conformation of owning it, it came out in front of them. "Let me formally introduce myself. I'm Mina and I'm an Absol", it announced. He thought, "Mina...that means you are a girl?", he asked in rather shocked state. From her voice, it couldn't be determined.
She nodded happily. They then went to the Pewter City. It was a city full of rock and people sold them like some ancient relic to the tourists. One such guy came to them to sell his rocks. Ash refused him time to time whenever he came to him. Thankfully the Pokemon Center wasn't made of rock or he swore he couldn't tolerate anything related to rocks at that time.
He deposited his three pokemons where Misty felt little awkward to be treated like a pokemon but Pikachu assured her nothing bad would happen with her. He soon left for a hospital where he appointed to a general physician to look at his damaged hand. He was shocked at first at the first sight of his hand but later he gave him an injection, sprayed some ointment and a fresh new dressing on his hand. He asked him to take the medicine regular on time and took some special precautions till he was fully recovered.
When he reached back, he found his pokemons waiting for him. They ran to him as soon as they got his sight. "How is your hand Ash?", asked Misty curiously. He patted on her head and replied, "Much better. Doctor has given me the medicines and told me to take some rest to heal it faster". She again blushed when he patted her.
"This means we can't challenge Brock now", said a disappointed Pikachu. She was itching for her first battle but she could not also ignore his condition. He looked at her and assured, "Yea but, who said we can't train before our first gym battle", with his high spirited energy. All of them yapped in enthusiasm, including Misty.
"But first, I need to call my mom", he informed them and went to the videophone area to call her. They followed him and stood beside him. He called her up which she picked up within a minute.
"Hello mom. How are you doing?", he asked while hiding both of his hands behind his back. "I'm fine here and tell how far you have progressed?", she answered and asked cheerfully. He smiled cheeky and relied, "Well, I'm now in the Pewter City", in similar cheery tone. She was surprised and asked,
"Wow honey, you made this far so quickly. Have you got any pokemons in Viridian Forest?", him. She thought it might be because he was unable to get any pokemon and so he moved to Pewter City to try his luck there.
But opposite to her expectations, he still smiled and lifted Vaporeon with his normal hand and put her on the desk. It her again her time to get blown away from his achievement. "I've got a Vaporeon", he smiled as much as he could, which was far less from what he wanted. She looked at the corner of her eyes at him for making her his real pokemon. She was ONLY HIS POKEMON as a mean to protect herself from unknown trainers. "How did you get a Vaporeon in Viridian Forest? As much I remember, you can only find bug pokemons like caterpie or weedle", she asked him curiously. Now that's happen when you brag about something which you don't know.
"I don't know, maybe she was lost and I happen to catch her", he came up with a possible excuse. She thought about it and answered, "Yes, that can be a reason and makes sense you caught her because you have Pikachu", and concluded. Mina came to his side and nagged him to introduce herself. "Mom, I need to show one more pokemon that I caught", he added, trying to give a bit of suspense to his mom. She was curious what her son bagged with him next. Vaporeon jumped down and in her place, he lifted Mina and placed it on the desk.
That time, she was more curious and a little bit of anxious than surprise. She immediately barged with questions, "Ash, how did you managed to get an Absol? Absols are not native to this region and certainly not lost in that forest. Tell me honey, how did you get it", and demanded answers quickly. He had a sweat drop built on his forehead.
He gulped before he began, "She told that she was abducted from place and was brought here for the illegal market for pokemons. She somehow managed to escape them and got lost in that forest" to tell her. He gulped not because he was afraid of telling her that, he was afraid how he was going to justify it.
She narrowed her eyes at him, making him more nervous. "And how do you know what happened to her. It isn't like Absols can speak like humans", she dug for the truth. How he was going to explain that he could understand pokespeech without telling about the curse of the fruit. Pikachu hopped on the desk beside her, making her jump down. She started to make some facial expressions and used her tone to tell her about the situation. Ash got the idea and said, "Mom, Pikachu and Vapereon helped me to understand that. They played an act and I understood it".
At that point, she seemed to be relieved and concluded, "Ok I get it. Take good care of her. She is not used to this place" from the data they given to her. She also noticed Ash was only using one of his hands only while the other was behind him. She got little suspicious and commanded, "Ash, raise both of your hands!", immediately.
He was taken aback. He sceptically looked at her and asked, "Mom...", but she instantly cut by her and added, "Ashton Ketchum, I order you to raise your both of the hands", dramatic angry manner. He quickly rapidly shook his head and raised both of this hands. That was the time when Delia was taken aback. She covered her mouth in horror of seeing a dressed hand with some blood stains on it.
"ASH, WHAT IS GOING ON OVER THERE?", she madly raged at the poor boy. She always wanted him to be safe and he even promised her he would be doing as she expected from him...but...there he did, something which HE SHOULD NOT DO! Ash and all of the others got tongue tiled to see her in that form. Pikachu and other pokemons never expected her to be that scary.
"Let me expla...", she again cut Ash sharply and commanded, "Ashton Ketchum, your pokemon journey is over. Come back to the house immediately" strictly to him. He then looked at his pokemons, who all seemed to be looking worried like he was, all of them looked at him as well, as if looking at him with hope...
He clenched his fist, looked straight at her. He knew what he was about to do, would cost him a lot and probably can't make over ever BUT he need to do it. "Mom, I'm not coming back and my journey is not over yet", defiantly expressed to her. He had his pokemons with him. He had support when he needed. He knew he could then face his mother.
She was shocked to hear it but repeated, "NO ASHTON, you ARE COMING BACK HOME", with even more energy. She was genuinely surprised to see him opposing her. But then again, he countered, "No mom, I'll not come back. I have dream and a promise which I need to fulfil first. I cannot come back no matter whatever you say", while in the last part, he closed his eyes and bowed down in front of her.
Then she only turned her head to the side, trying not to look at him and uttered, "Do whatever you fill like" and she ended the call from her end.
She lost her consciousness of her legs and fell down on the floor. She was destroyed from her heart and feelings which she had for Ash. She was trying to be protective towards Ash. He was yet to small to know that world and no one else she have other than him. She couldn't bear any harm on her son ever. And when he said that, at one hand she was all broken down while at the other, she realised that he had grown up. Only that could give her a small smile.
Back with Ash, even he was not feeling good after what he did. He gone to the Nurse Desk and booked at room. When he got the keys, he went straight to his room. His pokemons followed him quickly to his room. The door wasn't close and when they came inside, they saw him burring his face into the pillow on the bed.
All the pokemons hopped on o the bed after they shut the door, around him. Misty put her paw on his head and whispered, "Why did you go against your mom if you can't go against her?", softly to him. She was also feeling sad for him and also for his mother. Pikachu looked down on him and also whispered, "Maybe he did it for our sake..." to her.
Suddenly he got up, wiped his face and said, "Let's not think about this anymore... We need to train before we challenge Brock", with a forced smile on his face. It wasn't hidden that he was just changing the topic for them. They could also see reddish eyes of him, due to his continuous crying.
He came down from the bed, opened the door and went outside the room.
I guess it's already too long. So I'm ending it here.
PLEASE REVIEW THIS CHAPTER
TaTa!