Thank you to everyone who took the time to follow favorite or even review the previous chapter. I hope i have improved sufficiently in the past few days to at least show my appreciation to you guys and not disappoint.

I do not own Pokemon.

Ash

Snow… Ash hadn't really been acquainted with snow much. Sure, as a kid he had wanted to build snowmen and make snow angels like everyone else his age but he had thought he would do so in some different part of the world as a travelling trainer. He had not expected for the snow to come to him.

Pallet was covered in a white blanket. Out his window he could see the houses, the streets, the stores, the forest not too far away from the town's grounds all with wife capped tops. Even the resident professor of the town had not been spared. His lone windmill had snow atop its towers and the usually glimmering tiles atop his two storeyed lab building now shone a different colour of pure white. The harbour he knew was frozen too, boats of varying sizes were indefinitely stuck until someone would thaw them out. He couldn't imagine what would be happening to all the farmsteads a couple miles out of the town.

The past few days had been taxing to say the least on most of the people in the small town. Mild winters and hot summers was the norm in this region of Kanto. So the houses were not made to protect from the cold, Ash had had to sleep under layers of clothes and multiple blankets for the past three nights, just to keep from shivering.

Waking up to a clearer sky had lightened his mood to some degree but he still held that dread in the back of his mind that the weather from the past few days or so was going to lead to a postponing of the last of the trainer's proficiency tests.

"Ash," his mom called from the living room downstairs, filling the house with her cheery voice "It's time for breakfast honey." A clatter of plates accompanied her proclamation and ash knew he she was already trying to cheer him up.

He got off of his bed, feeling the cold creep through his body as he discarded his warm blankets. The news had said that the weather near pallet would be returning back to normal in less than a week, and he would have to pack all these back into the store pretty soon.

His eyes went to the bag resting at the bottom of his bed, it was something that he had bought weeks ago while in the peak of his excitement over travelling the world. A hint of excitement crept over him once again at that prospect. He had waited years for this, another few days or weeks were not supposed to get him so down.

"All done with your morning routine honey?" His mother asked pleasantly, while spreading butter on a golden brown piece of toast.

"Yeah, the water was a bit cold though." he said, climbing down the stairs layers of clothes on him. That made his mother smile, and he took it as encouragement that she wasn't as mad at him anymore.

The first day of captivity in his own house had been tense and filled with too much misplaced anger. He later realised how much of an insensitive idiot he had been, but even now he had a hard time apologizing. Instead he was just trying to be extra considerate in everything.

"Umm.. isn't there snow blocking the door? Should I get the shovel?." Ash knew he wouldn't have to. "Oh don't be silly, Mimey can handle it" came the usual reply from his mother.

But Ash wasn't just doing this to please his mother, it was that too but he also did it to give himself something to do for the next half an hour, he wasn't due to the laboratory till 9:00 and that was still hours away.

"Naah mom, I'll handle it this time. Say, did professor call about the trainer's test today?"

His mother's mood dropped a little at that, "Yes, about that... Ashy-" he knew this wasn't going to be good. "- the professor told me that no one's going to be meeting the Pokémon today, it seems the storm really panicked them and a few even got sick." The egg in his mouth was starting to sour at that.

"He did ask you to come over and help him with more of the machinery though, and something about treating some of the injured Pokémon."

"Did he say what time?" Ash asked, concern rising within him.

"As early as possible-" she realized her mistake and turned towards an Ash scarfing down his food with renewed vigour "- hey eat your meal properly young man."

He drank his juice up in a single gulp, and practically leaping out the back window he rushed into the back house rampaging through the gardening kit his mother had all but stopped using, before finding a decent sized shovel.

Once again he transitioned from the back to the from yard only through the windows and got to work on the almost knee deep snow. The screen door had taken a beating, as had the delicate furniture that assorted their front lawn. The heavier double door behind the screen one had fared much better, and was almost looking cleaned up after he pushed off all the snow from their patio.

By this time, some of the neighbours were coming out of their hibernation as well. Mr Parker, who lived across the street from the Ketchum's looked to be in the happiest out of them all.

"Good morning mister P." Ash greeted with a wave, slightly out of breath after his physical labour.

"Good morning Ash. You didn't need to do any shoveling you know, mister Jones has been sending Ramp around clearing up people's walkway." he said, approaching the Ketchum household, with a chipper feel to him.

"Aah, no. I'm sortof doing this to cheer mom up."

"You two get in a fight?" He asked somewhat knowingly.

"Yeah, it was because of being cramped up in there I guess." he gestured towards the house. "We're fine now though, nothing to worry about."

"Oh, well that's good. I don't expect her to be as crude as she is with us but i still fear for anyone who gets on her bad side." He said with mock fear in his tone, before laughing quite loudly, Ash was inclined to join in on it at least a little.

He didn't know how she was "crude" specifically but he had been around enough of the aides at the professor's laboratory to know that his mother was the one who whipped them into shape whenever the man wasn't around.

Apparently the laughter had attracted his mother's attention, because the moment they stopped, the door behind Ash opened up.

"Roche, why are you up so early today? The sun isn't even halfway up the sky." It seemed cooking had improved his mother's mood far more than he had initially guessed it would, she was practically being sarcastic.

"Oh, it's just nostalgia I guess." He replied without noticing the little jab at his tardy habits.

"You went out to Snowpoint less than half a year ago Roche." His mother deadpanned.

"Yeah, but the professor just worked me to death back then." he jokingly complained.

"Yes, and now you're restoring balance by coming to work as late as you possibly can every day." She turned her head towards her son, "And now my son, has to go in early because every other aide is probably trapped in their home and taking the day off"

"It's a lot more attention than anyone else gets at the lab. Heck, the professor only noticed me two years prior to my internship. He still calls me Ray sometimes." he said in mock dejectedness.

Ash noticed his mother's expression swelling with pride.

Ash didn't really think that was true, most of the time he was delegated grunt work. Shredding paperwork, feeding Pokémon, running to and from the convenience store buying chocolates for the professor's cavity inducing addiction. The last one wasn't very well known among his subordinates though. Sometimes, when he looked at the hungry gleam that took hold of the professor's eyes as he stepped into the office with a bag full of the sweet treats, he wondered if this was why he was kept around at all.

Other than that he would mostly just hang around near the pokemon all day. Most of them were the older wiser types, calm and collected even when Ash was around. The kind that had practice being gentle with even the most fragile of humans

His mom snapped him out of his musings. "Well since Ash is all done with his meal anyway," she looked towards him with slightly more approval than a few seconds ago "I'd have to eat alone with Mimey, and that never makes for good breakfast conversation. Does French toast and some appelstroop sound good to you?" She said pleasantly, not even waiting for a reply as she turned towards Ash and with a quick hug, she waved her goodbye before walking back into the house.

No one refused a meal at the Ketchum household. The man shrugged at Ash, then rushed inside with an even more happy expression his face.

Ash left the shovel on the patio and began to make his way towards the tallest building in town. A full three storeys tall, with stone stairs climbing, the hill it was built atop of, it was the closest thing the town had to a landmark and the only reason you could miss it was if you were blind.

On his way he took the time to observe the snow again, he wondered why he wasn't as excited it about it as he should be. This was the first time pallet had received snow in decades and the first time he had ever experienced it. Most kids, even if they were his age should be playing in it and enjoying themselves. He laughed internally. His social inadequacies were probably to blame for that. He could count the number of people he liked having daily conversation with on one hand. Maybe if you added pokemon to that list you would use two.

A giant sign reading "Pallet Institute of Pokemon research" greeted him as he climbed the snow laden steps of the elder Oak's abode. He found a large humanoid figure in the process of clearing out snow from the walkway as he reached the top of the hill. Chopper greeted him with the typical reptilian grin on his features as he deftly handled a shovel larger than Ash.

Ash had to wonder if it would have just been better if he let Mimey handle the front door situation in the morning, the psychic type was incredibly skilled at using telekinetic powers and his mind was much more powerful than Ash's puny human muscles.

The big bruiser gestured him towards the door and Ash took it to mean that he was wanted inside. Once in, he saw that most of the equipment was lying about haphazardly and that there was almost no natural light inside except from the sliding glass doors at the entrance.

"Oh, Ash good to see you've arrived child" an aged and wise voice called alto him from one of the treatment rooms, it was the only one where the lights were still on.

"Oh professor, how'd you know I was in?" He asked back walking towards the fluorescent lights, the voice that answered growing stronger with each step.

"Well, call it an old man's instinct." the professor seemed to laugh gently at his remark.

When Ash entered the room, he was more than a little surprised to see him sitting on the floor with a little bulbasaur on his lap. He was applying what looked like a freeze heal on the grass pokémon's body. He also noticed that the only source of lighting in the room was from an emergency light.

"Is that one of the sick pokémon professor?" He asked, concern for the cute little starter leaking into his voice.

"Yes, but a little bit of some ice heal and some time in a solar should get him back to health." He said as he finished applying the last of the potion and let the pokémon walk it off. "I didn't call you here to help me treat them though, that's for another time, what I really need you to do is check out the power room in the backyard" he said looking a little sheepish towards the end.

"Backyard" was a loose term obviously, the professor had thousands of acres of land behind his building that stretched on to the coast. Obviously most of it was for pokémon and not personal property but still too massive to be called a "backyard".

"Ran out of power from the mill already professor?" Ash asked. That shouldn't have been possible if the only person who had been living in the building for the past few days was the aged professor.

"The mill seems to have problems I can't fix alone Ash." The professor replied seeming somewhat irritated about the subject. "It's the reason why I've had to prematurely put so many infant pokémon into pokeballs. The artificial heating in the building stopped working on the second night, and not everyone of the young ones are familiar enough with Arcanine to cuddle up with him."

"So, the generator is our only option for now?"

"Yes, I trust that unless it's too seriously damaged by the storm you should be able to fix it. Chopper has probably already cleared away the snow from the area as well but take him just in case." he said while bringing out another pokéball from a tray to the side.

"He seems to be busy at the moment, he's clearing some snow up front." Ash remarked, "I'll just handle it on my own."

He took the professor's silence as a sign of permission and went off, a spare emergency light and a small tool kit in his hands.

The power room itself was quite a ways off. You could question why anyone would build a generator so far away from the building it was supposed to be powering. The professor had answered ash's query, telling him that the original plans for the lab had accounted for many more fields of study but due to a lack of proper manpower and interested parties they had to re scale it to appropriate for budget. Ash had accepted that reasoning back then but he still didn't like the fact that it had to be built nearly a kilometer out.

It was a smallish building, with no windows but sets of metal ventilation shafts to it's side and back along with a slightly squarish roof.

Ash slid his ID through the detector at the door and after confirming his identity it unlocked itself.

Ash turned his light on to appraise the situation, and it was horrible. The generator was the first thing that came into view and it was completely savaged, it's wires and power cables had been destroyed and the body was all that remained.

He soon found the culprit as he turned his light towards the corner where he heard a weak whimper come from. A small yellow form lay weakly on the floor of the room it was clearly not in very good condition.

Ash dropped his tool kit immediately and rushed to the injured pokemon's side. It seemed even more panicked by his light though, and he quickly shut it off. He couldn't really see any physical injuries, so he tried to turn the creature over.

The Pokemon shocked him though as it literally shocked him. Ash momentarily froze stiff as he felt his entire body move uncontrollably fast, all the while he knew he was still in his stiff stationary position.

He breathed hard. Recoiling away from the small shocker as he touched his chest, feeling his heartbeat what he felt was a million times a second. Looking around, everything seemed to look fuzzy, and incredibly well lit all of a sudden. The pain came next, the worst he had ever felt in his life, like every blood vessel in his arms had suddenly been split apart by a needle.

For all that, he was incapable of screaming.

If the pokemon could shock him, then it was most certainly still alive. His years of handling pokémon came into effect, and in the back of his mind he knew he would do all he could to save it. He had to get to the professor, the man would know what was wrong with it.

He got up once again reeling from the aftereffects of his near electrocution and turned to the small figure only a few meters from him. It was breathing faster than before but they were pained breaths not necessarily healthier ones.

Ash got up to run towards the professor's office but a part of him just couldn't, a part of him told him to carry that pikachu and get it to safety, a part of him told him it would die.

So he picked it up, and immediately he experienced what felt like a million needles pressing through every potential of his being, for a couple seconds he didn't know what was going on. Then his eyes unfocused and refocused once and he felt like he wanted to hurl. He got out of the building just in time for another outburst of electric energy from the tiny monster and again his knees almost buckled under him.

Although he knew somewhere in the back of his mind that this was a bad idea, the adrenaline coursing through him screamed obscenities at the rational part of his mind and he pushed on. He could see his legs plodding through the snow at fast jog, the little body of the yellow pokémon shaking with each leg put forward.

Halfway to the lab he realized the horrific shocking had stopped completely and his worries resurfaced even though the expectations of feeling shocked submerged. All he could do was plod on, hopefully faster than before.

The first new sensations he felt were the feelings of being lifted off of the ground, his two feet made completely useless in favour of muscley arms under his knees and his back. And the gently rocking back and forth as he moved without using his body.

He had resigned himself to closing his eyes thinking it was over, but when he heard the voice of Professor Oak and possibly one other person he forced himself to open them once more. They were hazy though, and he could only pick out the silhouettes of the two men. One was clearly the professor with his long white coat and grey hair, running towards him with an indistinguishable look on his face. The other man was even hazier all he could discern were his imposing height, as he towered over the pokémon professor and and his incredibly audacious hair colour.

Pikachu was taken off of his arms and the professor personally had him lain down on an operating table. He took it as the chance to relax, and promptly let unconsciousness overcome him.

He woke up with a pain in his stomach that Ash realized as hunger. Rising up was difficult, his entire body protested the movement but it gave him a better view of his surroundings. The tube lights at the opposite ends of the light blue tiled walls. The open windows let in rays of sunlight Ash hadn't seen in almost a week. It warmed the atmosphere of what was otherwise a very minimalistic room.

A crushing hug encapsulated him, knocking out what little breath he held inside his lungs still held.

"Ash, don't you ever do that to me again! You had me worried sick."

The hug turned a little softer now, more bearable and comforting. He returned it to the best of his abilities.

"I thought I'd lost you, even if the professor told me you were going to be fine." She still held him tightly, and Ash was about to ask her to let him breathe when the door opened, revealing a slightly shaken up Professor Oak.

"Good." He said, calming himself down before approaching the bed.

"Delia, you seem to be strangling the poor boy."

His mother let go of him at that, but still held on to both his hands. He wanted to wipe the look of worry in her face, the pain and fear, the tiredness and bags underneath her eyes that made her look older than she actually was. He wanted to apologize.

"I'm sorry Ash." She said first, little fragments of relief untangling the wrinkles on her face.

"I'm so-" a fit of coughing plagued him as he felt like his throat wanted to jump out of his mouth, as if it were burning inside of him.

The professor walked to his side, "It's all right Ash don't try to speak for now, you still need to rest."

"You look fine of course but on the inside, there's still a lot of healing that needs doing." He adjusted the saline bag hanging beside the bed.

Healing? What type of healing? How long would he have to heal? What happened to the pikachu? Did he save it? What day was it? How long was he asleep? What happened to the trainer's tests?

His eyes were getting wider and wider, the professor seemed to catch on to the boys thought process though. He held up the clipboard in his hand to where Ash could see it before taking it away and explaining it himself.

"The shock or shocks as I now know had damaged your hands the most, next in line were your arms and then the rest of your body. The burns were dealt with as soon as possible but then the real challenge came. Your internal organs suffered just as much, if not more and we had to directly apply ditto cells into the heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys and your intestines before they started to get better. Your voice box however is going to require smaller doses because we don't want to risk over mutation in a relatively low priority organ. Regular ditto cell application after meals along with calcium supplements will do a much safer job."

"You do need to understand-" He began with a slight grimace "-that not all of your body's capabilities will return as fast as you'd like, for example the nerve endings in your hands are going to take some getting used to and you might not find them extremely cooperative at first."

The professor dropped his professional tone then, returning to a more familiar one, "I'm sorry Ash, the league contacted me and I had to organise the finals for the 'Trainer's Proficiency Test'," Ash was getting more disheartened each second "however, I've already organised for you to get your trainer ID anyway." Ash's head shot up towards the professor the question how? clearly present on his face.

"Having the leading professor of three different fields vouch for you doesn't harm your chances Ash." Ash would've hugged the man if he could've gotten to him.

"Now Ash, I know you want to leave as soon as possible but the doctor, even the professor are in agreement that a few more days of bed rest and then a few more days of rehabilitation will be necessary before allowing you to head out anywhere." His mother said, tightening her grip on his hands, and for a moment he wondered if she would hug him again.

The professor was nodding to it and Ash knew arguing to this would get him nowhere.

Ash made a show of two long ears on his head while turning to the professor. "Aah yes, the pikachu, it is doing just fine ash, I'm actually stunned you would ask about it, I don't know how much you remember the events of events but you've been out of it for three days now. The pikachu in that time has healed fully. It was suffering from electric fever, an overload of his electric pouches most likely caused by the consumption of too much energy. We discharged his stores as soon as possible. I take it he was the one causing problems in the power room?"

Ash nodded.

"Yes, the young specimen did have an extreme excess of electrical energy and holding it all in must have been hell on earth. On top of that, it seemed to have suffered from multiple backlash shocks from attempting to release it."

It wasn't in full control Ash realized.

"Professor, I think Ash needs more time to rest, all this information is overloading his brain"

"Of course not he can clearly under-" the professor blanched under his mother's glare, leaving the room with a sheepish look on his face.

The tired look on her face seemed grow more vivid than before.

"Mom," he croaked out in a quieter volume "I'm- " more coughing ensued.

His mother visibly winced as he struggled with the words, "It's all right Ash, I shouldn't have expected any less from you."

A slight smile worked it's way into her features, although it wasn't a happy one, it meant she wasn't going to be angry with him at least for now.

"Hush now, you can't spend your energy on talking, you'll need to recover as soon as possible so you can get your journey started."

He felt his shoulders get heavier as his mother closed the curtains of the room, creating a warm comfortable darkness.

"I'll be right here Ash." she said coming back to his side.

This time he steeled himself well enough for say "sleep".

She took on a bittersweet expression "I will."

Most of his motor skills were untouched, he could walk just fine, and although most of his body was sore and uncomfortable from the multiple days of stagnation he didn't really feel any unusual pains.

The professor clearly hadn't expected him. Ash wasn't sure if the man was fully invested in the reproachful look he had adopted since he dropped it near instantly, waving him into the office while clearing some of the papers on his table.

The professor's aides had all visited him during his semi hospitalised situation on the third floor of the laboratory building, mister P especially had visited even when Ash had been moved back home. The professor though.. well this was the first time they had met after Ash moved back to his home almost four days ago.

"I wanted to talk to you about starting my journey."

"The usual starters aren't ready yet." The professor stopped him in his tracks, all the while still fidgeting on his papers. "The newest eggs haven't hatched and won't hatch for nearly a month, and even afterwards I wouldn't be comfortable sending you out there with a baby Pokémon to protect you." He found what he was looking for, and with a flourish he set the paper in front of Ash.

"That doesn't mean I won't get you a starter though." The professor paused, as if unsure now that Ash was giving him a skeptical look, lost on what the professor was doing.

"In fact, I was going to introduce it to you as soon as you arrived here. Shall we go?"

The professor brought him to one of the larger pokéball storing rooms before picking out what seemed to be a random one.

"Now it's a bit feisty but nothing you can't handle I'm sure."

White light flashes for a second from the release of a pokémon and Ash was greeted by a pikachu- no the pikachu. It seemed a bit rocked from the experience, unsteady on it's legs for a second before gaining its composure.

It stared at the boy with something akin to curiosity.

Ash kneeled down on the floor, offering up an open palm to the aforementioned creature.

The pikachu approached him, cautio- no, it wasn't caution more along the lines of maybe apprehension.

Ash was perfectly still till the very moment Pikachu climbed on his arm and he got ticklish. Ash saw the professor smile as he giggled like a child licked by a poochyena. Pikachu was inspecting each part of the boy, scurrying over him until settling on his shoulder, eyes resting on a smiling professor.

"For some reason it still amazes me when you do that."

"Do what?"

"When a trainer meets their starter for the first time it's very rare for them to just accept each other like old friends. Not to mention, I was ready for the little rascal to be at least a little more stubborn with you."

Ash was still looking at the pikachu on his shoulder, staring at his clean yellow fur, looking incredibly fluffy.

"In any case you two seem to really like one another so at least there's no issue in that department. Go get that paper I showed you in my office, I'll be downstairs with your other stuff."

As met the professor in the main room of the lower floor, the place he knew to be where most trainers received their starters. He got around the desk, placing the paper in front of the professor, the pikachu still perched atop his shoulder.

"Good good, you'll need to get that signed by Delia."

Ash nodded. Still unsure what the professor could still be fumbling with once he put the pokédex and pokéballs on the table.

"Now, I know most trainers only get their pokéballs, starters and a pokédex to start their journey off. You didn't really get a standard starter even though you've completed a much longer internship course than most people."

"A lot of people would consider that unfair, compared to bulbasaur, charmander and squirtle a pikachu isn't all that sought after" Ash hadn't thought about this at all till now. He knew it was true to some extent. Pikachu's evolutionary line weren't known to be the same powerhouses the others became but it hadn't come to his mind until now.

"I know you're not the type of person who thinks of Pokemon in terms of how much a pokemon can deal damage or how well they can weather attacks but it is an important part of being a trainer."

"I know how battling works professor." Ash recalled the hundreds of hours spent mulling over highlights of old league matches.

"Every teen knows how battling works Ash, but some people no matter how hard they try can't make pokemon battle. It just isn't in them to see pokemon get hurt."

"You think I can't battle" Ash was a little annoyed that the professor knew him so little, but he knew he really shouldn't be.

Since the day he had joined, the lab had swallowed him up, maybe that was why he never showed his love of battling in here before. In front of all the people who worked here, ever devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, he had been maybe slightly embarrassed.

"Your connection to pokemon is rare Ash, I would be surprised if you weren't capable of co-operating with them in any field of choice." Ash was used to his mother singing his praises, usually for even the smallest of feats, but the professor was another beast entirely.

"I just want you to consider, maybe after this journey when you come back to Pallet again, to try for something more than an internship here." the words stunned Ash enough that the small orb the professor threw at him actually hit him.

He regained his composure, turning down towards the ball so as not to show the smile on his face that wouldn't go away. This was unbelievable. But he couldn't get side tracked.

"Yeah.. i'll think about it professor." He said, picking up the roughly marble sized orb on the ground. Pikachu sparked his cheeks a little at that and Ash looked at the electric mouse with curiosity. "What's gotten into you?"

"As expected, pikachu already has an affinity towards the object."

"What is this thing professor?" Ash asked "Is is a thunderstone?" a new reverence for the object claimed him as he examined the orb with renewed vigour.

"Nothing that special my boy, just a gift from me to take along with you on our journey, i don't fully understand it yet but something told me you would want it"

He wasn't going to turn down a gift from the professor of all people, so he put it into his pocket, as safe a spot as any for his case.

"Of course you know what this is-" the professor handed him the pokedex "-it already has your information stored in it, along with a good deal of starting credit and lots of useful things for you to study. Now these pokeballs aren't anything special but for the first few routes i'd be surprised if you need anything much heavier."

Ash nodded to that, taking the pokeballs gratefully from the professor and adding a few to his belt, additions to the side of Pikachu's marked one. The rest along with the Dex went in his backpack. He knew that until he got to Viridian there wasn't much in the way of a variety of pokemon he could capture.

"Have a good journey Ash."

It was the first time Ash had shaken hands with the old man.

A/N

i was hoping to cross the 10k mark with this chapter but it felt like i was dragging it along too much. i sincerely apologize for the lack of any real action scene or battle although i guess thats normal in the first few chapters of any pokemon fanfic unless they make you roll on the floor with laughter.

if you noticed i have a cover for my story now, its possibly one of the coolest things ive ever seen and if you wanna see more you should check out the artist here:

this one is his deviant art but he doesnt use that much anymore.

this is his tumblr.

The next chapter is sure to have some action please do tell me what i've done wrong and i will correct it. any grammar mistakes any character inconsistencies or anything else please feel free to tell me about them.