Your author has returned to deliver another exciting chapter. I realized that it was not possible to give me critique on the edited chapter as there was no possible way to give another review on the chapter without anonymously reviewing.

To Bookworm777, welcome to the fic. Three other persons are interested in this fanfic and it seems to be gaining more popularity than expected. Yes it is four now, but as long as these people are reading, then I am satisfied. And I was not planning to have the future smoking Oddish speak English, that just throws the story off context. As of date, Team Rocket's Meowth will be the only one to speak English.

I believe that edit was sufficient so I will continue on with this story that I weave. There may be a change in Ash's character from the one you know so please inform me if that is so. I also apologize for the lengthy time needed to update; it was rather hard to write this chapter.

Chapter 2: Improvision

Pallet Town has quite a reputation in the stories of Kanto. It is known as the town of beginnings, where trainers come here to get a grasp of the world of Pokemon. While it is true that every city and town offers this service, the cities never had quite a feel of fresh trainers than that of Pallet Town.

Pallet Town is famous for that and one other person. He lives atop a high hill, living by himself. His life has been devoted to the curiosity of the fascinating creatures of Pokemon. His name was Professor Oak.

Back in the days of peace and prosperity, Oak used to be able to teach young children what Pokemon were and how these creatures functioned in nature. He was always delighted to see a child knock on the door and say "Professor Oak, can you teach me about Pokemon?" Oak would gladly take the child in and tour around his spacious lab, showing him all the wonderful things he collected about Pokemon. He'd go outside to his field research area and show him a couple of Pokemon held in captivity. Yes, Oak was a happy man.

But then license restrictions came. Since then, only trainers were allowed to visit the professor and only for business or retrieving a first pokemon. Oak was too busy filling out paperwork about his research and his lab credentials to teach children anyway. This made him very sad. The only child he could even talk to was his grandson, Gary and he too was leaving on his own journey.

Today was an exceptionally bad day. He just realized that he ran out of starter pokemon for his trainers. Starter pokemon are notoriously known to be difficult to breed. It prevented trainers from making accidental baby pokemon, but starter pokemon always had a tough time breeding. They lacked interest. So they were always low on supply. Professor Oak was stressed out because he knew that someone special would come in today first thing in the morning.

He sighed. His grandson took the last Squirtle in the lab. Charmanders and Bulbasaurs went like hot cakes a week ago. And he received no shipment of the three since two months ago. No eggs, either. Shipping pokemon to labs had caused Pokemon rights protests in the past, and Oak wondered if the protest group won their case. It wasn't like he treated them poorly or anything. The shipping process was probably more stress on the pokemon and the protest group never liked the idea of mass shipping. The man sighed again.

"Mom, I'm going to get my first pokemon!"

"That's great, honey! Come back here when you do so I can see it, okay!"

"Okay!"

With a bellyful of pancakes and hot syrup, the youthful Ash sprung out his doorway. Passing the enduring trials of License Registration, the boy was absolutely delighted to finally be able to receive his first pokemon after so many years of watching. He skipped his way down to the lab, making sure to give a greeting to everyone that passed by. Nothing could stop his bountiful happiness now. Well, except one thing. And that thing was waiting in the very place Ash was frolicking to.

Oak saw the boy skipping down the road and approaching his residence. Oak was terrified to face the boy's future tears. Without haste, he turned off all the lights and shut the blinds, locked the doors and went down to the basement to quietly do paperwork. He was afraid.

By no means was he avoiding the boy, but he didn't want to see his disappointment. He was not ready to face the rejection from the trainer. He knew it was okay to be wrong, but when someone condemned him to a mistake, he could never handle it. And if he was to be condemned by the same person that idolized him since his birth... he didn't want to think of it. He quickly descended the lab into the basement and took out the paperwork to be done.

He remembered the days when he was a striving young lad. All the people around him criticized him every time he did something wrong. His early years as a professor were terrible. His credibility was low and he never liked it. All he wanted to do was teach the world about Pokemon... but when others shunned him for his small errors, he felt unappreciated. If he couldn't help anybody, he didn't deserve to exist. For such an old, wise man, he still had that one flaw.

The door was knocked upon. Oak shivered for a bit. The repetitive knocks echoed in the now dark lab. The professor's hand twitched as he strained to write. The knocks continued like a wrath. The professor struggled to keep in the chair he sat on. He waited for it to stop. And eventually... it did.

"I guess I'll check the back door, then."

Oak forgot that his back door wasn't opened. He remembered how Ash could sneak in to accompany Oak and ask him more questions about Pokemon. He locked his basement door and sat at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for it to end.

"Hello? Professor Oak?"

The child wandered into the lab. He was distraught when he saw that all the lights were out and the blinds shut. Ash knew Oak would never leave without informing the people. He looked around the lab until he encountered a locked door. Peculiarly, this was the only door he found that was locked. He made the correlation that Oak was probably inside. He knocked on the door.

"Professor! Are you in there?"

Oak became terribly tense from the incessant knocking and the cries. He thought the boy gave up but the rapture came back, louder than before. The continuing cries shook his heart and he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Go home!" the professor yelled.

"Professor, is that you!" Ash replied.

"There's nothing here for you, please go home!"

Ash was quite puzzled until he saw a stack of papers over in the distance. He picked them up and read them slowly. "Pokemon shipping bills," Ash began.

"Don't read what's not yours!" Oak yelled again.

Ash was not paying attention. He looked at the small stack. He found that shipping costs increased as he went along the sheets. When he came to the last sheet, he was shocked. It read this:

Order:

50 Bulbasaur lv. 5 32,000

50 Charmander lv. 5 35,000

50 Squirtle lv. 5 33,000

50 Assorted Pokemon Eggs 20,000

Shipping and Handling: 1000

Professor reduction rate: -500

Total: 120,500 Pokedollars.

Besides the ridiculous cost, the paper seemed normal like all the other papers in that stack... but there was something written at the bottom that caught Ash's attention.

Order Denied:

As we are currently out of starter pokemon to ship, your order has been denied. All money has been returned to the work account. Product should be available within two to three weeks. Thank you.

The trainer stared at the paper a bit more, as to confirm the text on the paper. He smiled.

"Professor... you didn't want to see me get mad at you because you had no starter pokemon, didn't you?" the trainer said. There was no reply on the other side of the door. Ash started to talk again.

"I guess I'm a little disappointed... but I can always wait, I guess. I mean, it's always a bummer, but you know what? It's all right. I'll wait until the next shipment if you need to." The trainer gained a sense of maturity, as if gaining a new insight.

"Can you please come out now? It's not really a big deal."

Ash waited. With assurance, the doorknob opened. On the other side, a slightly sniffling, smiling Oak was on the other side of the door.

"Good morning, Ash," the professor sniveled.

"I'll wait if you want me to," Ash replied.

"No, no... I just cracked. All the paperwork I have now, the new license restrictions... all this new work... must have finally gotten to me," the professor said. He regained himself quickly. He did not want to appear emotionally unstable in front of a confident trainer.

"At any rate, I don't have any more starter pokemon for you. I'm sorry. I know you were anxious to get a new one, but I ran out yesterday."

"Oh, that's okay. I'm just curious, Professor, who got the last one?"

"Oh... Gary. You know him, don't you?"

Professor Oak's one common misconception was that Gary and Ash were good friends. His impression was totally wrong. As Gary was older than Ash, he took every chance he could to shove that piece of knowledge up Ash's head. Gary was also significantly better at what seemed to be everything. Unfortunately, as Ash followed the same dream as Gary, they became rivals.

"That Gary!"

Ash clenched his fist tightly. He was quite angry. If another person had taken the pokemon, then he would've been more forgiving, but for Gary to beat Ash at this game was infuriating and good reason to be mad. He was about to break a window, but he saw Oak. He quickly withdrew his anger, at least temporarily.

"Ash..." Professor Oak began to say. "I think I can improvise the situation we have at hand. If you are interested in a pokemon as of right now... I believe I can give you one. It's more of a challenge, but I think you can do it. Would you like it?"

Ash's eyes shone. "Would I! Heck yes, Professor, I'd love it! Anything to beat that Gary!"

Professor Oak sighed and smiled. "He's like a child again," he said to himself. He turned on all the lights. He opened the blinds and let sunshine in once more. "Follow me, Ash."

Ash eagerly went behind him. The energy in him suddenly just burst out again. He was quite glad to be able to get a pokemon now. He already knew vaguely that Oak still had something wrong with him, and for Ash that was quite all right.

Oak stopped in the center of a single room. It was mostly circular and with but one intriguing feature. This was the stand in the center that contained three pokeball slots. The slots were empty, of course, but this was expected. Professor Oak went into the computer and typed a few things.

"Let's see here... Ash, could I have our license number?"

"Sure," Ash said. He took it out from his back wallet. "The number is 01- 456- 06."

(On a miscellaneous note, 01 stands for "Pallet Town" region, 456 is the trainer number and 06 is a randomly generated number based on physical credentials.)

Oak typed this in. "We have your account now. I can look up all the information you have right now. We can manually override the system and allow you to have a starter unique from the traditional three." Oak left his chair and walked out briefly. He came back with a pokeball in his hand.

"Are you ready?" Oak eagerly asked. Ash nodded vigorously. With that, Oak released the pokemon inside.

"Pikachu!"

Revealed to Ash was a small yellow rodent like pokemon. It had curiously long ears, big cute eyes, stubby arms and legs and a tail that looked similar to a thunderbolt. Its face expression was hard to resist, though its thoughts were probably not on that topic.

"Ash, in addition with this pokemon, I will give you more supplies to aid you on your journey." Oak gave the trainer five pokeballs and a bright red pokedex. "I would advise testing out your pokedex right now."

Ash opened the pokedex. It had this to say about Pikachu:

"Pikachu, the mouse pokemon. Pikachu often appear in packs and their cheeks are essentially sacs of electricity. When in harm, Pikachu will use their cheeks to shock their opponent with electricity."

"Your pokedex is currently in quick scan mode. It lets you quickly get some good information about the pokemon in front of you. You can also look up other credentials about your pokemon. Try it out."

Ash fumbled through the various modes, eventually getting into attack mode.

"This Pikachu is at level 5. It currently knows 'Quick Attack,' 'Thundershock,' and 'Growl.'"

Oak smiled at Ash. The old man felt satisfied that he did his job. He knew that this Pikachu was a very challenging Pikachu to take care of, but he knew that Ash would be patient enough.

Ash thanked the professor kindly and retrieved his Pikachu. He attempted using the pokeball's beam feature to return the Pikachu, but the Pikachu did not go inside. It scurried back and forth in an attempt to avoid the red beam. Ash became confused.

"Ash, some pokemon don't like being inside a pokeball. Most Pikachu don't like pokeballs at all. I struggled to keep him in there myself."

Ash was perplexed at this. He thought all pokemon would happily go into a pokeball.

"Some pokemon are just special, if you want to put it that way," Oak concluded.

Ash thought for a little bit and smiled. "Yeah, I guess so, huh?" He looked at his Pikachu, curiously looking at him back. Ash picked the mouse pokemon up and laughed. "Well, Pikachu, looks like you have a new friend. I'm Ash, and I'm going to be your new pokemon trainer; isn't that going to be awesome!" Ash smiled.

The Pikachu thought otherwise.

This chapter took longer than suspected due to character behavior. Hopefully I did not make the mistakes I did last time, but if I have, then please point it out to me via the review button.
Well, have a good day, my reader.