Hey this is Luna Shadow Cat and this is my first Pokemon story. This is a different start on Ash's journey. My twist is what if Ash's mom, Delia Ketchum, would not let him start his journey until he got Pikachu to listen to him and was forced to stay home? How will being forced to slow down change Ash's start? Read and find out! I also have a beta reader now, so thanks for the help CerberusLabra.

A young boy was still in his night clothes, running as fast as he could to Professor Oak's lab. The boy, Ash Ketchum, was hoping that there would still be a Pokemon left after waking up far too late. When he finally got to the lab, he saw someone he wished he hadn't. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Ashy-Boy."

That caused a dissatisfied growl to grow deep in Ash. "Hey Gary." was out of his mouth before he noticed the Pokeball in Gary's hand. "What Pokemon did you pick?" Of course, to this question, his childhood friend and rival simply gave a smug smile. "If you were here that was the last Pokemon, and the best. So good luck trying to start without one. I'm going to be a Master with this one. Smell ya later." With this, he got into a car with a group of female cheerleaders and drove off.

Another growl came up Ash's throat before he could stop it. "That no good, smug...show-off..." He muttered while running up the stairs to ring the doorbell. A man in his fifties answered, wearing a lab-coat. "Ah. Ash. I see you finally showed up."

"Yes, Professor Oak. I came here to get my Pokemon...Please tell me there's one left..."

The Professor nodded. "Please, Follow me." Once inside, on a pedestal almost in the middle of the room, were three Pokeballs containing the starters for the Kanto region.

"Sweet, I choose Charmander!" The raven-haired boy exclaimed as he picked up one of the three balls. The ball opened. Empty.

"I'm afraid that was chosen by a trainer who wasn't late." The Professor mused from his position, standing to the side.

"Okay..." Ash put that Pokeball and grabbed one of the others. "Then I choose Bulbasaur!" Once again, it was empty.

"Early bird catches the worm...or in this case, Pokemon."

At this point, Ash was desperate. He grabbed the last of the three red and white spheres. "Then I'll take Squirtle!" Just as the rest. Empty.

"Gary got the last one I'm afraid."

Crap... Ash put the ball back. His face falling in disappointment. "Professor are there any Pokemon left that I could have?"

The Professor mulled over it for a brief moment. "Well I do have one Pokemon with me, but there is a little problem with it..."

"I don't care! I'll take it!"

"Okay. Just be careful." The Professor sighed, taking out a Pokeball with a lightning bolt sticker attached to the red half and handed it to the raven-haired boy.

Ash opened this Pokeball. A flash of white exploded forth, nearly blinding him for a moment before it re-shaped and took the form a small, yellow, rodent with red cheeks and a tail shaped like a lightning bolt. "It's a Pikachu!"

"Pika, pika, chu." The mouse replied, ears twitching with life.

"I'll take it as my starter!" Ash rushed to the rodent and hugged it. Apparently, the Pikachu didn't like this and shocked Ash hard with an electric attack of sorts. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor twitching, hair standing everywhere and his body sparking from the shocks.

"Pikachu is also known as the Electric Mouse Pokemon." Professor Oak decided to inform. "It's cure, but it can also generate powerful electricity. Rather shocking isn't it?" He proceeded to hand over a red Pokedex and five of the red and white spheres. "Here's your Pokedex and five Pokeballs to get you started."

"Thanks Professor." As soon as Ash touched them, Pikachu let loose with another Thundershock, frying both the adolescent and the worn Professor.

Back outside, a few moments later, Ash and the Professor exited the lab to find a small group of people waiting to cheer for Ash.

In front of this group was Delia Ketchum, none other than Ash's mom. "Uh...Mom? What's going on?"

"Ash, at last you're leaving to become a Pokemon Master. I am so proud of you... But you know I am going to miss you a lot, right?" After this tiny little rant, Delia seemed to noticed Pikachu standing at her son's side. "Is that your Pokemon? Oh he looks so cute! But why is he out of his Pokeball? I thought all Pokemon had to remain inside?"

"Oh. Right. Pikachu, return." Ash answered, dumbly reaching for the mouse's Pokeball to try and beam him back into the little device... But the mouse kept side-stepping and dodging the red capture beam, and when Ash threw it at him, Pikachu swung around and smacked it with his tail, sending it flying back straight into Ash's face.

Delia frowned. "It's strange but not uncommon for Pokemon to be scared to be inside it's ball."

Not pleased by this statement, Pikachu cried out, shocking the whole crowd with another Thundershock, sending everyone to the ground reeling.

"Uh...Mom, I might need some rubber gloves and some rope..." In response to this, Delia rose up, a smug look plastered on her face and turned to her son. "No, you will not."

If a question mark could have appeared above Ash's head in confusion at the statement, it probably would have. "What I mean is that you will not start your journey until you and Pikachu can get along."

"WHAT?!" The shock was written on Ash's face like an open book. He could see she meant what she said. "But it's not fair. Gary already started his journey, he's way ahead of me-"

He was cut off. "And he'll stay of you if you start like this. If you and Pikachu don't get along you're just going to anger some wild Pokemon like a Spearow...or worse, you'll get chased and you'll end up getting hurt because Pikachu won't defend you. As your mother how can I stand by and let that happen?" The firm glare she held left no room to argue as she huffed and spun on her heel to walk home. "Come on, both of you."

Ash hung his head, but followed his mother. Pikachu coming along to avoid the wrath of a woman scorned. She was even scaring him.

At home, Ash sat down, moping about what had happened, already changed out of his night clothes and into his everyday clothes. Pikachu slept on top of his bookcase.

"Instead of moping all day why don't you go outside and do something?" Delia asked, receiving a depressed sigh in response. "Like what?" When she glanced into his room and caught sight of her son, she felt guilty, but she knew this was the right thing to do. He needed to figure out how to slow down and learn things as he went along. Slow and steady won the race, what would it matter if he got all eight badges faster than Gary if they were all going to be sitting and waiting for months for the league to start anyway? She shook her head, deciding to let Ash figure that question out for himself as she left him alone.

Ash, with his Pokedex in his hand, decided to play around with it a bit, so...as any kid would do...he started pressing buttons. "I am Dexter, a Pokedex programmed by Professor Oak for Pokemon Trainer Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. My function is to provide information and advice regarding Pokemon and their training. If lost or stolen, I cannot be replaced."

Ever the curious one, Ash was of course interested in this information, pointing the red device, apparently named Dexter, at Pikachu and let it scan the mouse for a brief moment.

Pikachu, the Mouse Pokemon, it stores electricity in the sacs on it's cheeks. When it releases pent-up energy in a burst, the electric power is equivalent to a lightning bolt.

Type: Electric

Gender: Male

Abilities: Static

Attacks: Growl, Thundershock, Quick Attack, Tackle, and Agility

The kid's eyes widened. "Oh this is so cool." And so, he continued to play with it. Learning quickly that not only did it record Pokemon and a lot of information on them, but it also a map, his trainer ID, and it kept up with his winnings, effectively functioning as a mobile bank account. He only had $250 to start, but the more wins he got the more money he would earn. If he lost, his money would automatically transfer to the person who defeated him.

He was interrupted by his mother popping into the room and informing them it was time for lunch.

Deciding to carry his lunch outside and surprisingly, the yellow mouse apparently decided to follow him; until they got to a small pond within the borders on the south end of Pallet Town. Sitting down by the water, he pulled out his food and silently ate while watching the scenery; so caught up was he in this that a splash caught him off guard, making him jump. The jarring movement caused a Pokeball to fall out of his pocket and roll down the short hill into the pond, touching the Pokemon and sucking it inside before Ash could even really see what it was.

Two shakes back and forth were all it took before a cling sounded signifying that it was sealed with...whatever...captured inside it.

"I caught my first Pokemon!" Ash jumped up, this time in excitement, before noticing that the ball was about to roll into the water. He dove in after it, when he broke the surface again, he was laughing; he was soaked. But he was happy. Maybe he'd get to start his journey now. Eagerly releasing the Pokemon, he was greeted by a organ fish with yellow whiskers and fins. The fish looked back at him.

Ash couldn't help but smile at it. "Hi, I'm Ash. I guess I'm your trainer now. I hope we can become great friends?" The fish seemed pleased with this question and began to splash around in the pond happily. "I have a feeling you're going to be a powerful partner."

"A Magikarp? Powerful? Yeah, right." A snobby voice cut in to ruin his good mood. A little brat of a kid was staring down at them from the edge of the pond. "Magikarp are a weak and pathetic excuse for a Pokemon, all they can do flop and splash around..."

It would only take a glance at the organ fish to note that it was looking down, hurt by these comments. "You're wrong. Magikarp is great Pokemon. So what if it's weak right now? You've gotta start somewhere. Me and this Magikarp are going to train until it's the most powerful it can be. Right Magikarp? We'll be the very best!"

If the fish had tear glands, it's eyes would have watered at the touching vow. It splashed up and down in the water again, voicing it's name in agreement. "Mag-karp!"

"Whatever. You're a loser." The scoffed and walked away. For some reason, his attitude just reminded Ash of Gary...Instead of letting it get to him, Ash made his way out of the pond to sit on the grass and grabbed Dexter to scan his new friend.

Magikarp, The Fish Pokemon is virtually useless in battle as it can only splash around. As a result, it is considered to be weak. However it is actually a very hardy Pokemon that can survive in any body of water no matter how polluted it is.

Type: Water

Gender: Female

Abilities: Swift Swim

Attacks: Splash

Once again, Ash looked to the fish and smiled. "So you can survive in any type of water huh? That's cool. You've gotta be strong to do that."

The Magikarp's scales seemed to darken to a deeper organ at that suggestion.

"Hey, Pikachu, check it out!" Ash called out, the yellow mouse waking up with a yawn, staring at Magikarp...and then proceeded to laugh. The fish voiced displeasure at this, growling it's own name. "Karp!" it exclaimed in indignation and jumped into the air, crashing into the pond and flicking it's tail to splash water on Pikachu. A moment later it rose up to look at the rodent smugly.

Pikachu wasn't even close to amused. He was shocked, and rather annoyed. His cheeks began to spark threatening. "Oh no...Magikarp Return!" Ash stated, seeing that this interaction was going south rather quickly, a beam of red light caught Magikarp in the side and sucked it back into it's Pokeball just in time to save it from the Thundershock. Ash wasn't so lucky.

He was flat on the ground, smoke coming off of his body and out of his mouth as he rose his head up to glare at his starter. "Hey, what was that for?"

His answer was a shrug before it turned to head home.

-HOME-

Ash was in the bathroom filling the tub with water. He had already let his mother know about Magikarp. She was happy he caught a new Pokemon and was impressed with him as soon as he told her that he was going to train the fish first before running ahead to challenge every gym now that he had a Pokemon that would listen to him. He was learning.

Ash released Magikarp into the bathtub. The fish looked around in confusion but brightened and looked happy when she saw her new trainer and started to splash in the water.

Ash chuckled at that. "Easy girl."

"Karp, karp!"

Ash smiled and started to rub the top of the fish as he looked outside the window to see Pikachu on the roof just outside, enjoying a thunderstorm that had rolled in since he returned home. "Dexter did say that Electric Pokemon love thunderstorms. Gives them a charged feeling or something like that?"

Somehow, this gave him an idea. "Hey, I have an idea." He announced, causing Magikarp to look at him curiously.

"I should give all my Pokemon names. That way you can have your own identity. It might confuse any opponents for a second and catch them off-guard...I'll be able to call you out in a crowd...and if someone I battle has another Magikarp I'll be able to tell who's who."

He pondered his reasoning's for a moment. "You're determined, deliberate in pursuing ambitions, but you have to be patient since it takes so much longer for you to grow. How about Bulma for you?"

The new name caused the fish to splash up and down happily. In doing so, knocking Ash into the tub with it.

Laughter filled the room and turned to see it coming from his little yellow mouse. "Yeah yeah, I know that was funny. Why don't you come in and join us?" The rodent responded by sticking it's nose up and turning around to watch the storm once again.

"I don't understand this mouse...One moment it likes me, the next it's mean to me. It's so unpredictable. Like..." He paused, zoning out in thought, before seeming to come back to reality; crawling out of the tub to make his way to the window, he stuck his head out. "How do you like the name Storm, Pikachu?"

The mouse thought about it for a moment and then nodded his head in agreement. Smiling to himself he saw the storm clear up and a rainbow was forming. He caught sight, above the rainbow, of a similarly colored bird flying across the sky. "Whoa, what's that?"

There are so many Pokemon that some have yet to be discovered.

"Well. This isn't how I planned to start...But I guess it's good to start things differently. I mean...Look what you can learn if you slow down just a little bit."

Well there you go, One Chapter finished. I'll answer any questions you may have. Second of all, yes, I'll take suggestions for Pokemon for Ash but I'd like a reason why you think he should have that particular Pokemon. I also want Ash to catch Pokemon for his mom, so please list some Pokemon you can see with her. Please, please, please review!