Ash and Gary were both very impatient; when they were told that they had to wait three years to become pokemon trainers, it didn't go too well.
"What do you mean we have to be ten to start our pokemon journeys?" Ash demanded.
"Now boys, the reason you can't become pokemon trainers until you're ten, is that I can't officially distribute the starter pokemon until you're the right age."
Suddenly Gary got an idea, "Well… what if we didn't get our starter pokemon?" He asked his grandfather.
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"You said that you can't give us starter pokemon, I'm simply asking for a different pokemon that I can have without being ten." Gary smirked.
'Oh dear... clever lad's already found a way past the system...' Professor Oak furrowed his brow. "Alright boys, I'll see what I can do."
Gary and Ash exchanged excited glances as Professor Oak went to call some pokemon breeders, to ask them for any spare eggs they might have.
After a few minutes, Professor Oak returned and told them the good news. "Alright, I've gotten you both some pokemon that you can use-!"
"Yeah!" Ash hooted, jumping up and punching the air, before the professor continued.
"On these conditions." Ash fell to the ground. "You will both have an entire PC box of pokemon eggs. You will each get to choose one egg to hatch. You two may also catch only one pokemon in every route; when you do catch these pokemon, you will trade them in for another egg. Also, you two must always travel together."
Gary crossed his arms in triumph; he could deal with this. It might mean that he could get much more powerful pokemon than the starters, and traveling with Ash wouldn't be too bad.
"Well then what are we waiting for?" Ash asked, "Let's choose our pokemon!"
Professor Oak nodded and led them to the PCs.
When they got there, the amount of eggs in the two PCs astounded them both. 'So many eggs to choose from!' Gary thought, 'I'd try to choose smart, but that's impossible with the undefinable eggs.'
Ash was overwhelmed. 'Okay, this is fine! I'll just pick… that one!' Ash almost jammed his finger, getting the 18th pokemon egg from the PC.
Gary, realizing he'd have to just "feel" his way through this, not knowing what might be in each egg, calmed down and picked the 21st pokemon egg on display.
"Now both of you just touch your eggs, and watch them hatch!" The professor instructed them.
Ash nervously placed a hand on his egg... and was surprised when it was knocked away by a tremendous pulse from within! The table shook and slid as the egg cracked, and the pokemon began to emerge. Was that a green fin or horn? Were those red scales? It was a... Larvitar!
Professor Oak looked impressed, "A Larvitar? Quite a fine specimen. You might already have a potential champion on your team Ash!"
Gary growled with envy, not willing to be outdone, even by a friend. He placed a hand firmly on his egg, ready to hold on if it reacted the way Ash's did... but it didn't. The egg started to shake, but not enough to move the table; it made more of a rattling noise than a throbbing pulse. Gary was about to feel disappointed, until he was forced to pull back his hand with a yelp as one sharp point, then another and another, stuck through the shell. The egg hatched into a... Skorupi!
Professor Oak was glad to see them get such wonderful pokemon. "Two pokemon who will become future powerhouses! Amazing. Now you two can go on a pokemon adventure! But first I would like for the both of you to use these devices." He handed them their pokedexes; they were going to need them to identify any pokemon they didn't recognize and record data.
Gary and Ash exchanged nods, then Ash walked over to his house to pack up and say goodbye.
Delia Ketchum greeted her son with a sympathetic look, thinking that Ash had been turned away by Professor Oak. "Ash, you see, you can't become a trainer until you're ten."
"Actually mom… I did become a pokemon trainer!" Delia had a look of complete shock.
"You have to be ten to be a real pokemon trainer. You aren't ready!" Delia protested.
"We didn't get the usual starter pokemon; instead Professor Oak let us choose random eggs from the PC. Each time we catch a wild pokemon, we can trade it in for another egg. It's not really a rule that you can't be a pokemon trainer until you're ten. Please, just let me go on my journey, okay?" Ash pleaded.
Delia sighed, before nodding, "I'll go pack your bags." She told him quietly, hugging him, "I couldn't be more proud of you…" Delia said.
A few minutes later, Ash had a fully packed bag, and waved to his mom as he ran over to Gary, who was already packed.
"So you're finally ready, you Slowpoke. Just take these quickly." Gary handed him 10 pokeballs. "Now we can go to Viridian City."
Ash nodded, and the pair took off down to Route 1.
After a while, Gary stopped running; Ash looked back at him questioningly. "What is it? We have to get to Viridian City, don't we?"
"No, don't you remember what gramps said? On every route we can catch a pokemon and trade it in for another egg. This is a perfect chance to get some more strong pokemon!" Gary struck one of his trade mark poses.
Ash nodded in anticipation, "Alright then, let's go!"
They both searched around for some Rattatas and Pidgeys; there were plenty to be found in the wooden fields of Route 1.
Ash decided to battle a Rattata, while Gary decided he wanted the challenge of taking on a Pidgey, even with his Skorupi's type disadvantage.
Even though he was only a novice pokemon trainer, Ash was eager to claim his first win. He took Larvitar's pokeball off his belt and pressed the button to summon it in a flash of light. "Let's do this! Larvitar I choose you! Use bite!"
Larvitar charged right at the Rattata and bit it, causing it to shriek in pain. The Rattata retaliated with tackle, sending Larvitar to the ground.
"No! Larvitar! Use bite again!" Ash suddenly realized that he didn't know any of Larvitar's moves other than bite. 'I'm in trouble if I can't beat Rattata with a few bites. I really hope Gary is doing better than I am!' Ash thought with concern.
Larvitar charged towards Rattata once more, but this time, it did it smarter. Larvitar went around Rattata and bit it from behind, nearly taking its tail off
The Rattata could barely stand, but it used a quick attack to dash into Larvitar.
Ash's Larvitar grunted from the pain but got up; still, it couldn't take more than a few more hits.
Rattata prepared for another quick attack, but was stopped by Ash, who threw a pokeball at it, catching it.
"Great job, Larvitar!"Ash walked towards his Larvitar and used a potion to heal it up, then looked up and saw that Gary had just finished his battle.
"That was a tough one…" Gary grimaced, before clenching his fists, "A Pidgey shouldn't have been hard at all, but maybe using a bug type wasn't the best strategy..." He calmed down a bit. "Let's just go to Viridian City."
They finished the walk to Viridian City without further incident; when they got there they immediately went to the pokemon center and healed their pokemon.
"Gary, cheer up! We can get another pokemon and then check what moves Larvitar and Skorupi have."
"Okay, it's just that I had way too tough of a time against a pidgey." Gary said, "I guess sitting here won't do anything." Gary got up and went to the PC. "Can I choose my egg first?" Gary asked Ash, who nodded.
"I will choose the… 13th egg." Gary got the egg and touched it. The pokemon was a… Pachirisu… and 8 rare candies? "Huh? Why are these here?"
"I think those are for raising the hatched egg to the level the other pokemon was at." Gary nodded at the explanation.
Ash walked up to the PC and took the 34th egg. He touched it and it was a… Huh?
He pulled out the pokedex and scanned the pokemon.
Froakie, the Bubble Frog pokemon. It is part of the Water 1 egg group. The height is 1'00" and it weighs 15.4 lbs. It protects its skin by covering its body in delicate bubbles. Beneath its happy-go-lucky air, it keeps a watchful eye on its surroundings. This pokemon knows the moves: Pound, Growl, Mud Sport, and Camouflage!
"Wow! This pokemon seems pretty good-! Wait, what?" Ash stopped as they looked at the color of the Froakie in the pokedex and his Froakie.
"That's strange…" Gary muttered, "Why is your pokemon like that?"
"I don't know-! What, is this a shiny?!" Ash asked in disbelief.
"No! It can't be!" Gary yelled, "A shiny pokemon from the second hatch? That's unbelievable!" Gary was extremely jealous that he didn't get the shiny pokemon.
Ash got a really dumb idea, "Well, what if the Froakie in the pokedex is shiny? And this one is normal?"
Gary facepalmed at the thought, "No, because then it would probably show the shiny form of all the pokemon in the 'dex, but that would mean every egg we've hatched was shiny. I think if they were, gramps would have had a much bigger reaction."
Ash was silent for a moment, "Oh."
Ash and Gary realized that they still had to move on and get to all of the gyms, so they stopped talking about the shiny. They proceeded to feed their new pokemon the rare candy, until they reached level 9.
This Pokemon wants to learn the following moves: Bubble and Quick Attack. Would you like to replace any moves for these?
Ash thought about it, "Froakie seems to be kind of speedy, so I think that he should have that kind of moveset! I want to replace pound with quick attack! Then replace growl with bubble! It would be good to have a STAB move."
The pokedex gave a beep to indicate that Froakie had forgotten the old moves and learned new ones.
"Since this town doesn't have a gym, we should go to Pewter City, and catch two more pokemon on the way." Gary told Ash. "That Froakie could be useful for you, but in my battles, I won't have any useful pokemon. Skorupi is a poison bug and Pachirisu is an electric type; they don't have many type advantages, and poison is weak to rock. With a rock ground type and a water type, you have more advantages at the moment." He analyzed.
"Don't worry! Like you said, we can both catch some more pokemon. Now let's see what moves these pokemon have." Gary nodded and pulled out the pokedex.
Ash did so too and scanned his Larvitar.
This pokemon knows the moves: Bite, Leer, Dragon Dance, and Iron Defense!
Gary nodded at Larvitar's moveset, "Wow, Ash! That pokemon has some strong moves." He said, taking out his pokedex to scan Skorupi.
This pokemon knows the moves: Bite, Poison Sting, Confuse Ray, and Agility!
"My Skorupi knows some pretty powerful moves too." Gary said, scanning Pachirisu.
This pokemon knows the moves: Growl, Quick Attack, Charge, and Iron Tail!
Gary frowned, "This pokemon doesn't have too many good moves, but they could be useful… Charge… but no special or electric attacks… Growl could be used to stall… Iron Tail… but attack is its lowest base stat… and I guess Quick Attack could work until Pachirisu learns something better. Well I will really have to work on this."
"Eh, let's go to Pewter City," said Gary.
