Chapter One; wherein our young hero finally gets a Pokemon and meets a few new friends to share the tirbulations and trials of his adventurous trail ahead of his bright new future!

"Snakes!" Ash Catchthem's mom was screaming from kitchen. It was Summer and Ash figured she'd heard another Snake out in their grassy sun blasted yard again. He got dressed and hurried downstairs as his mom whooped and hollered about, "there's snakes everywhere!" and "Get them! Get all the snakes! Hurry!," and "you know I can't abide a snake!" she cried out over and over, she had a very nervous disposition and Ash was afraid about leaving her all alone in their house when he went to get Pokemon but was too excited to think for very long. That's why Ash wanted to be a Pokemon master and catch all the snakes so his mom can finally calm down, also he was excited about how it was the day he was old enough to go start catching pokemon because it is his birthday!

"Well," he said, entering the kitchen. The sun glinted off of his mothers vestal sacraments, he had always felt safe here, but not today, today the kitchen wasn't a place of refuge, a place to forget the world and taste something sweet for a change, no... Today the kitchen was a place where he had to face a very hard decision. His mom didn't want him to go around catching Pokemon because she knew there were snakes everywhere and he would just wind up getting swallowed up by a snake like his daddy had done ten years ago. But his mom knew what day it was too, it was his birthday, of course she knew, she had given birth to him and she kept up with the date and used calenders and clocks. She knew the score. Ash was ten years old today, old enough to decide if he should leave home to go and catch Pokemon, he was a man grown, and legally able, obligated even, to make these kinds of decisions.

"It's time I went to see Porfessor Oak to get my first Pokemon," Ash said over his shoulder on his way out the door. He lived next to door to a world famous Pokemon researcher named Professor Oak. Professor Oak gets money from the government to find out all about the different stuff about Pokemon. So Ash was going to go to his house and get a Pokemon. Professor Oak had a gigantic research lab connected to his house that his used on Pokemon. Ash was excited and ran to get there even though it was only about 20 feet away. That's when he ran straight into a girl riding her bike down the road.

As they stumbled up and fell everywhere the girls bike rolled off into the first pond that was on Professor Oaks front lawn. "Oh no!" The red headed girl whined, "my name's Misty and you just ruined my bike!" She was pointed her finger at Ash.

Ash sure felt sorry he'd done all that, "I'm sorry," he said, "my name is Abs Catchthem and I want to be a Pokemon master and catch all the snakes so I'm going to see Professor Oak to get my very first Pokemon today!"

Misty couldn't believe her ears and gasped, she was Pokemon too and told him about it.

"Wow," said Ash, "maybe after I get my Pokemon from Prof. Oak we can battle our Pokemon," he said and started on his way again when Misty cried out at him and then Misty jumped out at him to block his way.

"YAAAAA!" Ash shouted out when Misty surprised him. Then he tried to move around her but but she wouldn't budge! "Hey get out of the way Misty!," he said, "I can't go get my Pokemon from the Prof. with you in the way!"

"That's why I'm doing it!" She explained to him with yelling, he was stupid. "You can't go all the way out there," she pointed across the street to the Prof.'s lab, "without a pokemon with you to keep you safe! Don't you know anyhting!"
"But I walk over there just about every week," Ash protested.

A dark cloud passed over Misty's face, "but today isn't like every other day," Misty said quietly and Ash had to lean to hear her better, "haven't you heard.." she trailed off, looking at him meaningfully...

"Heard what?" Ask asked cagily, he wasn't sure if she was fooling on him or not but was starting to feel scared.

Misty leaned forward even more, their lips were almost touching now but Ash was too freaked out to move, "you haven't heard about the maniac?" Misty asked him in an even lower voice, the whites of her eyes vivid and clearly visible around her dilated pupils. Now Ash really was scared he told her he hadnt heard about all that and that it was pretty crazy.

"Crazy?" Misty said, and started laughing a little, but she stopped very suddenly and looked at Ash again, "crazy is right, police say this maniac is the craziest one ever!"

"That's awful!" Ash cried out.

Misty nodded her head, "it is," she agreed," the maniac goes around doing a lot of bad stuff, her name is evil Misty and she'll chop you up and kill you so you better be careful!"

Ash had no idea about all of that and it really freaked him out but he was glad Misty accepted his invitation to accompany him so she could keep him safe from the maniac like she told him she would.

But when they got to the lab the door had a bunch of big chunks that looked like they had been hacked out of it and it was mostly off the hinges, swaying in the breeze. Inside the once overwhelmingly bright flourescents flickered and buzzed lighting the scene before them in a sharp grisly contrast, a scene of phantasmagoric carnage. Blood covered the walls and once sparkling tile floor. Everywhere were bits of smashed instruments and beakers, bloody handprints and in one corner Ash spied a pair of bent up glasses. There werren't three pokeballs on any of the counters to choose from!

Ash had no idea what to do! He didn't see Prof Oak anywhere and with everything in the lab chopped upto bits and covered in blood he couldn't seem to find the three pokeballs inside one of which contained the path to his destiny. "Do you think the maniac has been here?" He asked as he scanned the lab desperatly to find the pokeballs.

"Could be," Misty said vauely, "this looks like the sort of thing evil Misty would do.."

That's when he found them, they were laying just at his feet and he bent down to get a closer look, "don't worry," he called out to Misty, who didn't seem to be feeling worry, or anything at all, she was just standing there staring blankly, "I just found them."

He started to reach out for the pokeball that was farthest away from him, it had a Levi in it, which he thought was his favorite Pokemon. But when Misty saw which one he was picking she started to really freak out, "don't pick that one or the maniac will get you!" she screamed at him.

"Yaaa! I don't want that!" WHat do i do?"

"You have to get the Pymander if you don't want the maniac to get you," Misty told him, but he didn't want to hear all of that.

"Awwww," Ash whined, "but I dont want Pymander, I want a Levi!" He said and crossed him arms over his chest to show he wouldn't pick up that pokeball.

Misty got even angrier when he did that and she kept yelling at him, "If you keep this up you're getting a Chumbley!" She threatened so he picked up the Pymander pretty quick.