Ash's New Start
Chapter One
Announcement: I would just like to say that for one, I do not own Pokemon, and for two, I am making it so that in this story, Brock stayed with his siblings at the gym because his father couldn't do it alone, and Misty's bike was repaired by a shop in Viridian, and paid for by Ash, and so she never followed Ash around either. Also, I am not going to limit Kanto to just that region's Pokemon.
Ash Ketchum had just failed in his attempt to win the Thunder Badge from Lt. Surge of the Vermillion City gym. He needed to find a way to raise the strength of all of his Pokemon so he could defeat the leader the next time he battled him. The only problem was that he had no idea where to even begin in training his Pokemon, he hadn't paid attention to any of Professor Oak's lectures while growing up under his tutelage. Where was he supposed to begin?
He hadn't actually won many battles before. There was the occasional trainer that challenged him while he was traveling, but besides that, there was only the Pewter Gym leader, Brock. He probably would have gained some experience from the Cerulean Gym, but those leaders just gave him a badge and sent him on his way… he felt horrible for not trying to earn that badge the hard way.
"GAH!", he screamed in frustration. He couldn't help but wonder if he would have had more luck on his journey if he had caught a few more Pokemon along the way, it wasn't like he never had the chance. There was the time when he caught Weedle in Viridian Forest and ended up losing it soon afterward.
*FLASHBACK*
Ash had been in Viridian Forest for all of twenty minutes when he happened across a dark yellow insect with a horn atop its head. His first catch! He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Pokedex he had received from Professor Oak before leaving on his journey, and pointed it at the bug.
"Weedle, the Hairy Bug Pokemon, Weedle are known to inject extremely toxic poison into the bloodstream if they catch you with their horn.", voiced the computer.
"That… sounds…. AWESOME!", screamed Ash, who would apparently adore anything that can kill within seconds. Ash also happened to not have experience at catching Pokemon yet, so instead of battling Weedle first, he instead only threw the Pokeball at it.
"POKEBALL, GO!", yelled a grinning Ash, as he saw the Pokeball hit the Weedle directly. The Pokemon was swallowed in a bright red light, before being captured inside the ball. It wiggled only twice, before coming to a halt. Ash stared at the ball with wide eyes.
"WOOHOO! I DID IT! I CAUGHT WEEDLE! I CAUGHT MY FIRST POKEMON!", hollered a joyful (and almost tearful) Ash.
Pokemon do tend to try and either run away from loud noises, or come and see what all the commotion was about. An old Fearow happened to be flying by at that moment, and seeing the loud disturbance the young boy was causing, decided to see why the boy was celebrating.
"YAY! I AM THE BEST! LOOK AT THIS WORLD! INSIDE THIS POKEBALL, IS MY FIRST EVER CAUGHT POKEMON! I AM THE BESTTTT!", Ash continued to shout, much to the annoyance of the surrounding Pokemon, including Fearow.
Fearow decided to take matters into his own hands, and swooped down to the ground, picked up the red and white sphere with his beak, and whipped it over the treetops, across the forest, before taking back off into the air and leaving a crying Ash behind.
*FLASHBACK END*
He hadn't ever found Weedle's Pokeball, and could only hope that the Pokemon was found by a good trainer. Hopefully, the bug Pokemon was found by the insane 'samurai'… named Samurai, that ran around the forest in hopes of battling the trainers that crossed through the trees. THAT would certainly be a memory that would last for the rest of his life.
*FLASHBACK*
"POKEBALL, GO!", Ash screamed (while still crying about his Weedle), and threw the Pokeball at the Pokemon that was Caterpie.
Before it could hit the Worm Pokemon, a man appeared in front of the ball and was hit in the face. The Caterpie seemed almost thankful for the diversion, and as quickly as its small legs could carry it, ran deeper into the forest.
"AGH!", shouted the man (or samurai?) with a now-bloody nose.
"HEY! Why did you block that Pokeball! I WOULD HAVE CAUGHT THAT CATERPIE!", screamed a now bawling Ash.
"Well, you see, I knew that someone was over here, and I figured that they would be a trainer! I make it my mission to battle every trainer that passes through here!", claimed the man.
"That doesn't explain why you blocked my catch!", complained Ash, "And how did you know that someone was here anyway?", he questioned quizzically.
"Uh… yeah… well, anyway, to answer your second question!," he began to a sweat dropping Ash, "I knew you were hear because I heard the distinct sounds of a boy crying, and the even more distinct sounds of a boy shouting for suicide", he deadpanned.
Okay, maybe Ash had been a bit dramatic about the Weedle, but come on! It was his first possible Pokemon! HE WANTED IT! He needed to stop himself from thinking of this traumatic event, before the crying started again.
"ANYWAY! It's time to battle!", shouted the excited, samurai boy.
"NO! Why would I battle a jerk like you, Mr. Samurai!", complained Ash before marching off into the forest, heading towards the exit.
"Hey! You have to battle me!", whined the samurai, "AND HOW DID YOU KNOW MY NAME!", Samurai yelled in question.
*FLASHBACK END*
Ash passed through the rest of the forest without any problems, though he swore he had heard the cries of the Team Rocket members he met in the Viridian City Pokemon Center. Oh, now that was an annoying memory.
*LAST FLASHBACK (this chapter, at least)*
Ash was currently on the video phone with Professor Oak of Pallet Town, informing him of a mysterious, flying, rainbow Pokemon that he had seen soon after the Spearow attack.
"That's impossible, Ash. Thousands of trainers have journeyed their entire lives and have never seen that Pokemon!", explained an exasperated Oak.
"I know what I saw, Professor…", mumbled the young boy.
Professor Oak sighed, he didn't mean to make the boy fall even deeper into a state of self-pity after he had already been depressed about the state of his Pikachu. What could he do to make it up to the boy? Hm…
"Ash, I want to give you something.", started the Professor.
"What do you want to give me! IS IT A POKEMON!", no matter how depressed, Ash was still a very excitable and young trainer.
"No, Ash. What I want to give you is potentially much more valuable, at least in the context of information", explained Oak.
"Aw… I don't need stupid and useless facts! I NEED POKEMON!", yelled the boy.
"ASH KETCHUM! Don't you know just how valuable information can be to a trainer such as yourself? I am offering to give you something that could help you catch any Pokemon, train your Pokemon to their fullest potential, and it will definitely help you on your way to becoming a Pokemon Master!", shouted the old Professor in anger and exasperation.
Ash's eyes bulged at the Professor's reasoning for accepting the information he wanted to give to him. It did seem like a good deal, and it was about time he started thinking with his brain instead of his gut.
"Okay, Professor, what is it?", questioned Ash.
"Just wait, Ash, let me send it over first so you can look at it while I explain", Oak explained, before putting the package in the transporter and hitting 'send'.
BZZT
Ash looked at the receiver transporter and saw a small, red, computerized device, that looked very similar to the Pokedex he already had.
"Professor, isn't this just another Pokedex?", asked the boy.
"No, Ash, this is a recently developed Pokedex that is currently in the experimental phase, and I sugg-", but the screen was cut off. A violent explosion rocked the Pokemon Center, before smoke started to fill the building and voices were heard.
"Prepare for trouble!", a voice from above said.
"and you better make it double!", another voice shouted.
"To protect the world from devastation.", the first voice said.
"To unite all peoples within our nation." , the second voice said.
"To denounce the evils of truth and love.", the first voice sang.
"To extend our reach to the stars above.", the second voice added.
"Jessie", the first voice stated as she revealed herself.
"James", the second voice stated as he too revealed himself.
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light.", Jesse said with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!", James challenged with a smirk.
"Meowth, that's right.", Meowth finished for the trio.
Ash had a bit of trouble trying to keep himself from laughing at the ridiculous motto that the trio had. Yet, he had also heard of Team Rocket before, and he would be damned if he was going to let these three thieves steal his Pikachu! He would fight for them!
*END FLASHBACK*
He had won in the end, after getting lucky. He had sent out as many Pokemon as he could find that were stored in the Pokemon Center that night. He happened upon a more powerful Pokemon known as an Exeggcutor, and had used the move Psychic to throw Team Rocket out of the place.
Also, now that he thought about it… he had never opened up his new Pokedex, and Professor Oak seemed to have forgotten about it, because he hadn't mentioned it in any of their other video calls. Not even when Ash had gotten himself lost and ended up at the Pokemon Researcher, Bill's, lighthouse. He had called the professor when he arrived there, but he said nothing at all about the Pokedex! Maybe he'd call Oak and ask him more about the device later on in his journey, it couldn't be that important.
Pikachu was, frankly, becoming very pissed, very fast. His trainer, Ash, had been sitting in the chair next to the electric mouse's hospital bed for an hour now without making any type of noise besides the occasional mumble. Well, he had dealt with Ash before in this manner… so why not again? It's not like his shocks would actually harm Ash, he seemed to be one of the few humans who could easily resist the strong, electric shocks that his body created.
The room was lit up with a shocking light.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!", screamed the 11-year old Ketchum, before falling onto the floor with a groan.
Pikachu couldn't help but snicker at seeing his trainer collapse onto the ground, and that was only a small jolt!
"PIKACHU! What did you do that for!", questioned Ash in a demanding voice.
"Pika!", giggled the mouse.
"I don't care if you were getting annoy-", but Ash was interrupted by an electronic voice coming from his right-hand pocket of the blue and white jacket he was wearing. He reached his hand down into the pocket to pull out what the sound was coming from, and realized quickly that it was coming from the experimental Pokedex that he had received from Professor Oak.
"Thunder Shock, this move was used by the Pikachu owned by Ash Ketchum", the monotone voice of the Pokedex stated.
"What was that?", questioned a confused Ash. He was about to put the Pokedex back into his pocket when it seemed to start responding to his question.
"Thunder Shock, this move was used by the Pikachu owned by Ash Ketchum", repeated the voice.
"What? No, I mean, why did you say that?", queried the boy, who was slowly becoming more and more confused.
"The shock from your Pikachu initiated the automatic-voice response system in my programming, I will now reply to any questions you ask aloud to me, my name is Dev", explained Dev.
"What kind of information can you give to me?", Ash might not have fully understood what was happening, but what he did understand was that he had a whole new way to access information that was previously unavailable to him, and he was definitely going to take advantage of this chance.
"I can provide for you a variety of information, such as the level of your Pokemon, the moves it currently knows, the moves it can learn at certain levels, advice on how to teach your Pokemon a move, advice on which Pokemon to catch, and the locations of any Pokemon currently programmed within me, which happens to be all that have currently been discovered, along with a large amount of other valuable information", explained the computerized voice of the Pokedex.
Ash was shocked beyond belief, he had possessed this myriad of helpfulness since the start of his journey, and he was only now learning that he had it! He needed to use this to its full advantage, which required trying to actually be smart about his journey from now on. First, he was going to test out the knowledge that Dev could provide for him.
"Uh… what level is my Pikachu…?", Ash experimented.
"The Pikachu owned by Ash Ketchum is approximately level 28", replied the computer.
"Wow, Pikachu, you're pretty powerful, aren't you?", exclaimed the excited boy, and causing the electric mouse to put its head down in bashfulness, "Hmm, what moves does he currently know?", questioned Ash.
"Pikachu currently has the ability to use Growl, Thunder Shock, Tail Whip, Thunder Wave, Quick Attack, Electro Ball, Double Team, and Slam. It might also be noteworthy to know that Pikachu will learn the move Thunderbolt at level 29", supplied Dev.
"WOAH! Pikachu, you know a lot of moves!", said the boy to a now-blushing Pikachu, "Wait a second, I thought Pikachu had already been using Thunderbolt", wondered Ash.
"That is incorrect, the move you know as Thunderbolt has actually been a super powered Thunder Shock", explained Dev.
"Wow… that means that Thunderbolt is going to be even more powerful… and I also thought that Pikachu already knew Thunder! That's going to be such a powerful move!", said an awestruck Ash to a surprised Pikachu. He decided that he would need to check up the info on each of his Pokemon.
"Dev, can you give me some information on each of the Pokemon I have on me right now?", asked Ash.
Squirtle- level 25 - Tackle, Tail Whip, Bubble, Withdraw, Water Gun, Bite, Rapid Spin, Protect, and Water Pulse.
Pidgeotto- level 26 - Tackle, Sand-attack, Gust, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, and Twister.
Charmander- level 22 - Scratch, Growl, Ember, Smokescreen, Dragon Rage, and Scary Face.
Bulbasaur- level 23- Tackle, Growl, Leech Seed, Vine Whip, Poisonpowder, Sleep Powder, Take Down, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent.
Suffice to say, Ash was quite surprised at the fact that all of his Pokemon had quite the variety of moves. He couldn't believe that he hadn't tried looking up all of the moves that they knew before, because it would have easily helped them win many of their past battles. Though, he couldn't help but wonder about something…
"Hey, wait a second, shouldn't Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur have evolved by now?", questioned Ash.
"Correct, the only thing stopping these Pokemon from evolving is your lack of acceptance. From the past information I have gathered, they believe that you will be disappointed in them if they evolve, for you are so proud of the fact that they are strong in their pre-evolved forms", explained the machine.
"What! They shouldn't think that!", shouted Ash, while grabbing the three Pokeballs that possessed the said Pokemon.
"Bulba!"
"Char!"
"Squirt!"
The three Pokemon were looking around in curiosity, wondering why their trainer had called upon them when there was obviously no battle to be fought.
"Squirtle, Charmander, Bulbasaur, I have a question for you three", began Ash, "Do you three want to evolve? If you do, you should know that I'll still be proud of you, and you'll just be that much stronger too!", he exclaimed.
The three Pokemon smiled at Ash, before nodding their heads in agreement at his question. The truth is, they had been wanting to evolve for quite a while, but they were too afraid of being left behind, since they had each been abandoned once before. They looked to Ash to see if he would mind if they evolved right away, only to receive a shake of the head in return (along with a small smile from the excited Ash).
The whole process took only a few moments, but when the white light had faded away from the three Pokemon, Ash couldn't help but stare in amazement.
"CHARRR!", growled the dark-red and yellow Charmeleon, now much larger and angled.
"WAR!", huffed the bulky form of Wartortle, now a pastel blue with wing-shaped ornaments on his head.
"IVY!", woofed the forest-green and navy-blue form of Ivysaur, who was also much larger and now had an opened flower on his back.
"Pika!", shouted an excited Pikachu at seeing his friends become much stronger within the space of a few seconds.
"Wow! You guys look so different, and powerful!", an amazed Ash was shouting and leaning over each Pokemon, inspecting their new forms. They seemed to have grown so powerful in such a short amount of time, he was amazed!
One thing was for certain, Ash would be much more serious about training from now on. He wouldn't sit around and wait for Pokemon to come to him, and his Pokemon to raise levels in the small amount of battles that he competed in, he would take an active role in the growth of his Pokemon, like a true trainer.