POKEMON:
Son of Ash
CHAPTER 1 - The Legacy of Ash
It has been twenty-three years since Ash Ketchum has challenged the Kalos League and stood victorious at the top. He's done it, he's become the Pokémon Champion, his life goal has now been completed. After fulfilling his dream, he decided to take it easy and spend time with his Pokémon, meet up with his old friends, fulfill old promises. He has since been married to Serena for almost twelve years now, having a son and a daughter. Settling down in Pallet Town, his son is almost at the age to begin his journey and start a new story. The story of Ash's son begins now…
Light filtered in through the curtains of the window to John Ketchum's room. A half packed backpack lay on the bed surrounded by stray clothes and camping supplies. Posters of legendary Pokémon hung on the walls. A computer sat near the window with a young man passed out on the keyboard. He had fair skin with brown hair that fell over his eyebrows. A knock reverberated through the room, waking John up. Brushing the hair out of his brown eyes, he noticed he had passed out at his computer again.
"Johnny!" a voice rang over the sound of the door swinging open. John looked over to see his sister Rachel standing in the doorway. She was five years old with short blonde hair that sat neatly on either side of her face, framing her face. Her most notable feature was her bright blue eyes. "Did you pass out at your computer screen again?" she continued without a pause.
"Yeah, I was running over the statistics of each possible starter Pokémon that I can get, looking into their advantages and disadvantages against each gym leader I might possibly meet" John said, returning to his computer screen, typing away. "So far I see that a Grass-type will help me with most of the first few gym leaders of each region dad went to."
"Wha?"
John sighed. "I am trying to decide which Pokemon to start with."
"Oh" Rachel said, "I'm going with the cute fox one like mommy did!"
"Mhmm, you do that Rachel." John said, not looking up from the computer. With a wide grin, Rachel started to turn away, pausing momentarily, remembering something important.
"I forget, daddy wants to talk to you" Rachel said, returning to skipping down the hall to her room.
John looked up, thinking about what his sister had just said.
'What could he want now?'
John walked down the staircase, to the first floor of the house. A living room with separate door to the kitchen lay to the left. A tv sat on one side with a couch on the opposite side. In the middle of the room, sunbathing slept a pink, dog-like Pokémon with pink bow and ribbon appendages.
'Mom's Sylveon,' John thought to himself, looking around the room for his father. The smell of pastries could be smelt coming from the kitchen, his mother hard at work making his birthday/going away cake for tomorrow. To his right, a closed wooden door leading to his father's study. John knocked on the door, awaiting to hear a reply from the other side.
'Nothing?' John thought, opening the door. It was a small room, having a simple desk with a computer on it. Walking around the desk, John remembered the countless nights he had spent in here, listening to his father's stories about his journey, about all the Pokémon he met, the friends he had made. On the desk sat three picture frames, the first being of John's parents at their wedding. Another picture to the right of that was a picture of Rachel, himself, Sylveon and a small yellow mouse with spiked ears and a lightning bolt tail. His father's best friend and first Pokémon, Pikachu.
The one other picture that sat on his father's desk was a picture of when he was John's age, surrounded by Pokémon of all different types and regions. This was all of the Pokémon that his father had caught and owned, most of which resided at the Oak Laboratory. John looked at the wall, which held all of his father's prized possessions from his journey. The Kalos League trophy, the Orange Islands Cup, various trinkets, half of a old PokéBall, and all of the badges he had collected.
'Just watch dad,' he thought to himself, 'I will collect all of the league trophies.'
Walking into the kitchen he saw his mother pulling the cake out of the oven. She had honey colored hair that reached just past her shoulders with blue eyes. A small panda Pokémon with red sunglasses was rolling dough on the counter next to her.
"Hi mom, hi Pancham." John said, making his presence known.
"Good morning, John" she said, smiling at him, "Are you excited for tomorrow?"
"I'm looking forward to it," he said, looking around the room. Pots and pans sat in the sink, cook books opened to various pages, powder all over the countertop. "Have you seen dad? Rachel told me he wanted to talk to me."
"Hmm… I think he and Pikachu went to Oak Laboratories this morning, said he was helping Professor Oak with a new Pokédex. He should still be there now if you want to go. Do you remember how to get there?"
"Yes mom, it's like four houses down from here."
"Okay," she said, returning back to the cake she had been working on. "Tell your father that we need some milk before he comes home."
John nodded his head, turned around and took off for Oak Laboratories.
It wasn't a long walk before he saw the wind turbine in the distance, signifying that it was Oak Laboratories. It was a decent sized building with a large property in the back, filled with many Pokémon. Walking through the front door, he saw a yellow light flicker behind the second door. Curiously, he opened it to look inside. His father's Pikachu was using an electric attack at a machine that seemed to be absorbing and redirecting the electric energy into a weird looking watch. This watch was square shaped with a red and black color scheme. From what John could gather, it had three buttons on the side, a small screen, and a smaller black circle above the screen. Looking behind Pikachu, he saw his father, a tall man with black hair and brown eyes. He was always wearing a baseball cap and had a small collection of them back in his room. Standing next to him was a tall man with brown spiked out hair, black eyes, and a goatee that matched his hair. He was wearing a white lab coat and had his hands in the coat pockets. This was Professor Oak, or as his father called him, Gary.
"John, what are you doing here?" his father asked as Pikachu's attack died out.
"Rachel told me you wanted to talk to me, and mom says we need milk." John said calmly. His father thought for a moment, and then realization dawned on him.
"Oh right," he said, allowing Pikachu to climb onto his shoulder. "I wanted to talk with you about your journey tomorrow. You were asleep earlier, so I decided to let you sleep and came to the lab to help Gary out on his newest creation."
Gary rolled his eyes, "Ash, it's Professor Oak when I'm at work."
"Oh right, sorry Gar… I mean Professor."
"But your father is right, I needed his help with a project," Professor Oak continued on, "and we actually just finished. Would you like to see it?" John nodded in agreement.
Gary walked over to the watch that had been attached to the machine and picked it up, holding a single strap between his fingers while letting the rest fall.
"Can you guess what this is?" Gary asked, grinning with delight.
"It's a watch?" John replied, confused by the question. Now Gary's grin turned into a smile.
"It's more than a watch, John." he said, putting the watch on. "It is the newest and latest design for the Pokédex!"
"How can that be a Pokédex?" John asked, taking a closer look, "It looks a little small to be able to hold all the information of every Pokémon out there."
"Inside the watch is a microchip that has the ability to store vast amounts of data," Gary said with a smile, "right now it has data on every known Pokémon and it's only using a quarter of the available memory space."
"Okay, so how does it work?"
"So you want to have the black circle above the screen," Gary began, "there is a scanner on that side. Next, you press the first button at the top, that activates the scanner." As he was saying this, he was performing an example with Pikachu. "Once you're all set, just click the button." The watch Pokédex came to life, an image of Pikachu appeared on the screen.
*Pikachu, the Electric Mouse Pokémon. Their checks are able to store electricity that can be used by pressing down on them.*
"That's pretty cool," John said, "so what are the other buttons for?"
"The second button is for making calls, it uses a hologram projector so you can see the other person, useful for traveling trainers who want to see their families," Gary said, pointing at the buttons, "and the third button is for seeing the six Pokémon you have on you, this lets you see how much health they have and if they have a status ailment."
"It's definitely a big help," John's dad said, "when I was your age, we had a Pokédex the size of a small notebook."
"And I figured since we have a model already made and plan on making more for the future trainers," Gary said, unlatching the watch from his wrist, "that this will be your birthday gift and Pokédex for your journey." Gary stretched his arm to John, holding the Pokédex watch in it. John held out his hands and Gary placed the watch in his hands.
"Wow, thank you so much, Uncle Gary!" John said, placing the watch on his left wrist. Gary rolled his eyes again.
"John, it's Professor Oak when I am at work…" Gary turned to glare at Ash, "This is your doing."
After dinner and celebrating, John retreated to his room to continue his research on starter Pokémon. The watch, placed on his now fully packed bag, sat in the corner of the room next to the door. A knock on the door took John's mind away from the computer screen. He turned around to see his father opening the door, with Pikachu still on his shoulder.
"Hey John, got a minute?" he asked, walking over to the bed.
"Sure, what's up dad?" John said, returning his gaze to the computer screen. His father sat on the end of the bed, petting Pikachu's chin.
"It's about your journey tomorrow," John stopped what he was doing and turned to look at his father. "now, I know you will be going out there with just your starting Pokémon much like your mother and I. And I also know how you like to go at things alone."
John thought for a moment, and it was true. In the past, he never asked for help when things got tough, relying upon his own abilities to counter any difficulties.
"But you will make friends, and you'll make a lot of Pokémon friends as well, they are partners that will be there for you through everything."
"Dad, they are Pokémon." John said calmly. They had been over this before and John didn't understand why his father couldn't see this. "They obey orders without question, and they don't pose much of a threat if you know the type advantage."
"John, they don't obey without question, my Charizard never listened to me until I gained his trust." his father said, standing up. "They aren't items for you to use, they are your partners and your friends."
"They are Pokémon, if they don't obey me, then I won't use them." John said, also standing up. "A Pokémon that doesn't obey it's trainer is not a Pokémon worth using, much like weaker Pokémon."
His father was getting frustrated now. "There is no such thing as a weak Pokémon, John! Every Pokémon has potential, and every Pokémon is worth it! That bond of trust and friendship is what makes them strong!"
"So is that why half of your Pokémon never evolved?" John replied coldly. His father was angry, his Pokémon were getting insulted and his son thought of Pokémon as tools. But he relaxed, he had to, it was his son and he couldn't lose him over an argument right before his son's journey.
"Get some sleep, you have an early day ahead of you tomorrow." he said, turning around to leave the room. As he got to the door, he stopped and turned his head. "You know, I knew a guy when I traveled through Sinnoh, he thought the same thing you did. I was able to change his views during our final battle. I'm hoping this journey will do the same to you." And with that, he walked out of the room and shut the door.
John stood there for a moment, looking at the door in disbelief. He had never heard about his father's rival in the Sinnoh region. Trying to get past this, John quickly returned to his computer screen, measuring the usefulness of each Grass type starter Pokémon.