So a bit of extra knowledge on this story, I will not be including the Alola region story, but Alola Pokemon will exist in this world.
(Chapter 3: The Final Push) Revised 2018-03-19
Everyone waited with anticipation for Jessie to reveal her final Pokemon. Even James and Meowth had to admit it was an exciting match and that the outcome of the battle was unpredictable. With one Pokemon remaining for both sides, both trainers were determined to win, though for different reasons. Not only was a badge at stake, but also the fact that this would be a loss to the team Rocket trio, who would easily be able to take all of Ash, Misty and Brock's Pokemon. The only thing stopping the trio, was the official declaration of a gym battle, something, Giovanni specifically stated was sacred and had to be accepted fairly no matter what. If the trio attempted theft during a gym battle, Giovanni would easily lose the gym.
"Alright, let's crush that twerp! Go Rhydon!" Jessie said as she threw an ultra ball at the field, revealing the powerful rock and ground type Pokemon.
"Rhydon!"
Ash threw his Pokeball. "I'm counting on you! Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur came out of its ball and jumped on the field, ready to battle.
"Bulbasaur Bulba!"
Ash wasted no time and issued a command.
"Bulbasaur use your Vine Whip attack!" Bulbasaur pulled out two vines from its bulb and launched them at Rhydon.
"Rhydon dodge it and use Horn Attack!" Immediately as Jessie said the command Rhydon sidestepped out of the way of the vines and charged at Bulbasaur with its horn despite the rough terrain. "Bulbasaur stop it with your Razor Leaf attack!" Bulbasaur then began to launch sharp leaves from its bulb at Rhydon, making it flinch briefly before it charged straight at Bulbasaur through the leaves knocking Bulbasaur into the air.
"SAUUURR!" Bulbasaur cried as it got thrown into the air in pain.
"Bulbasaur hang in there and use Leech Seed!" Ash commanded. Bulbasaur turned around in the air and launched a seed from its bulb on to Rhydon's horn, which grew a bunch of ivy around Rhydon's body, sapping away the Pokemon's energy.
However, for once, Jessie was one step ahead. "Use Fire Blast while it's still in the air!" Rhydon ignored the pain from the Leech Seed and erupted a giant star-shaped flame out of its mouth towards Bulbasaur. "Oh no! Bulbasaur!" Ash cried as the flames impacted Bulbasaur covering the battlefield with smoke.
Jessie smirked. "Well, twerp! This is the end! Prepare to forfeit all your Pokemon!"
Suddenly a blast of light blew out of the smoke and impacted Rhydon smashing it into the wall at the back of the gym. "What? But how?" Jessie cried. Then, Bulbasaur jumped out of the smoke, severely injured but still ready to battle. "Amazing Bulbasaur! That was Solar Beam!" Ash said. Suddenly, Bulbasaur flashed white and began changing. "Bulbasaur is evolving!" Ash said in glee. In the stands, Brock was also smiling. "This should even the odds, I've noticed Ash's Bulbasaur was ready to evolve at any time because of the bulb on it's back was abnormally large, but it didn't for some reason. It must have been waiting for it to learn Solar Beam before evolving!"
Gary shrugged. "Figures, Solar Beam is one of the strongest Grass-type moves and unevolved Pokemon learn them faster."
Suddenly, the light disappeared and Ivysaur came out, injured but ready to battle. Ash was staring in awe.
Misty cried out to Ash, "Ash, now's your chance!"
Jessie was getting angry, the battle was not going as planned. "Grrr! Whatever! Rhydon finish this! Hyper Beam!" Rhydon began charging an orange energy in its mouth. Ash gulped. "If that attack hits, it's all over! Bulb- I mean Ivysaur, let's finish this. SOLAR BEAM!" Ivysaur began charging its own attack. Since it charged up first, Rhydon launched it's Hyper Beam straight at Ivysaur, but Ivysaur jumped out of the way, exposing it's flower to the open roof better, leading it to launch its SolarBeam straight into Rhydon. Rhydon smashed into the wall again and ended up knocked out. "There no way!" Jessie cried.
Ash was ecstatic. He had finally won his 8th badge. Begrudgingly, Jessie threw the badge at Ash and stomped out of the field in a fury. Whether she liked it or not, Giovanni had given her the position of gym leader temporarily, meaning she had to give out badges if she ever had a loss, and all of the strong Pokemon Giovanni gave them, were now knocked out. The Team Rocket Trio was beaten yet again.
"Alright, Pikachu! This is badge number eight!" Ash yelled happily.
Pikachu jumped into its signature position and cried, "Pi Pikachu!"
Then, Gary spoke up. "Well Ashy-boy, guess I'll be seeing you at the Indigo league. Try not to lose until your up against me. Smell ya later."
He then proceeded to leave the gym.
Ash and the gang left the gym in a happy mood. Gary had left for Pallet town on his own, while Ash and his friends stayed at Viridian City for the night.
The next morning, everyone awoke and begun to do their normal morning routine. Pikachu shocked Ash awake, Brock cooked breakfast, Misty pulled Brock away from Nurse Joy by the ear and everyone got their Pokemon checked up. During that time frame, Ash realized he had no idea where and when the Indigo league was going to take place. After internally facepalming, he decided to ask Brock.
"Hey Brock, where's the Indigo league being held?" Ash asked.
Brock replied. "I don't know, but the professor probably does. Let's visit your hometown and find out."
So, the gang decided to head for Pallet town.
While walking on Route 1, Ash took a look around, admiring the view. He never did get the time to appreciate the route, as last time he was here, he was being chased by a very angry flock of Spearow in the middle of a very powerful thunderstorm. Honestly, that day was a really bad start to his Pokemon journey, he would have loved to have one of those battle-ready Spearow on his team, but he never got the chance to throw a Pokeball at one of them.
Suddenly Pikachu, who was sitting on Ash's shoulder, jumped off and got into a battle stance, cheeks sparking with electricity.
"Pika!" It sensed something aggressive around it, hiding in the forest.
"What's wrong Pikachu?" Ash asked. He got his answer immediately.
"FEARRROW!" Suddenly, a Fearow came out of the brush and charged at Ash, then changing direction to dodge a Thunderbolt from Pikachu.
"A Fearow! Why is it attacking us?" Ash said as the Fearow began flying towards Ash, with eyes set on the kill.
Pikachu got ready to defend its trainer with 100, no… a thousand Thunderbolts, but then, Pidgeotto jumped out of its Pokeball and landed in front of Ash. Fearow landed s few meters away from it. The two birds glared at each other. Then, Ash noticed something particular about this Fearow, its eyes were tinged slightly red, and it had many half-burnt feathers. "Wait a second, could that be the Spearow that attacked us on my first day as a trainer?"
Fearow cawed menacingly as if to confirm Ash's statement. It then proceeded to fly towards Ash, spinning like a drill. However, Pidgeotto struck it with a Quick Attack to its flank before it could impale Ash. The two birds began to strike each other in a deadly air battle, beak on beak, wing on wing, talon on talon.
"I don't understand. Why is Fearow this angry at me? That incident happened almost a year ago!" Ash said as he watched the birds battle in the sky. Misty suddenly spoke up. "Wait Ash! Last time you were attacked, weren't you attacked by a whole flock of Spearow?" Ash replied. "Yeah, and this one was their leader, I think." Misty then said, "Then maybe the Spearow abandoned Fearow as their leader after that event, meaning Fearow had lost its entire flock, leading it to build a grudge against you."
Fearow heard what Misty said and cringed, it was true and it hurt.
Confused, Ash replied, "But why would that event cause it to lose its leadership?"
Misty thought for a bit and said, "Maybe because all those Spearow ended up electrocuted by Pikachu, and since Fearow was the one who told them to attack you, they left him as they thought his leadership made them get electrocuted."
Brock then yelled, "Well whatever the reason, it's beating Pidgeotto!"
As the gang looked up, Pidgeotto fell out of the sky. It had lost the battle against Fearow. Fearow then looked at Ash, in a blind rage. Pikachu began to spark it's cheeks and prepare to attack. "Pikachu wait! Let me handle this." Ash said. Confused, Pikachu stepped back and watched. Fearow flew down to ground level to strike Ash, ready to impale him with its beak. That boy had taken its flock away from it, leading him to live a lonely life for a year. Fearow began to speed up to Ash. Misty and Brock began to cry out. "Ash what are you doing? Get out of there!"
Fearow was getting closer, ready to impale Ash. Seeing this, Ash decided to speak up. "Fearow, I'm sorry." Fearow was slightly surprised at those words but didn't slow down. "You're lonely now, and it's because of me. If I didn't throw that blanket on you that day, this would have never happened." Ash spoke. Fearow was still angry but had begun slowing down. It landed in front of Ash glaring. It had a few tears in its eyes, but they were still full of anger as well.
Then Ash said something else it didn't expect. "It looks like you have been lonely for a long time, but I want to repair this. I want to help you. I don't know if your old flock will accept you as their leader, but I know me and my Pokemon would accept you as a friend. I want to give you a chance, to no longer be lonely, to be my Pokemon. I always wanted a Fearow since that first day, but I never got the chance to throw a Pokeball at you." Fearow couldn't believe it, it hated that boy for what it did, but it also didn't want to live alone anymore, it acted tough, but always wanted to have others it could depend on, it hated being alone. The more it thought about the offer, the more appealing it became to it. It remembered the reason it attacked Ash in the first place. It was always jealous of human-trained Pokemon, due to how much love and attention they got, he wanted it too, but it never wanted to show that weakness to anyone. It tried to get the boy's attention on that fateful day and got a blanket in the face, which pissed it off.
Now it had a decision to make, kill the boy, or join him. One path would satisfy his vengeance, but also leave him lonely for the rest of his life, while the other would go against his pride and instinct, but give him others to depend on and possibly get the same attention it wanted as a Spearow. Of course, he could always leave, but since when did that ever solve anything?
…
Fearow took another good look at the group, and now that it had calmed down, it realized one other factor. It was outnumbered… by a lot.
By then, Misty and Brock already had their hands on their Pokeballs, just in case, while Pikachu was ready to zap it with a million thunderbolts if it made any harmful movements towards Ash. In addition, Pidgeotto had just woken up and was ready to strike at any time.
It made a decision.
It lunged straight for Ash.
"ASH!"
"NOO!"
"PIKA!"
…
"It's alright, I understand Fearow, it's a lot to take in."
What had looked like a lunge, was actually a glomp followed by many many tears. Fearow had its head in Ash's chest, crying out all the tears it held from it's lonely life. Ash just stood there, consoling Fearow, he knew that this had a huge impact, and vowed despite their not so friendly beginning, to take care of Fearow and give it a new and bright future.
Ash then said, "Alright Fearow, time to go back to your new home, I'll catch you there, so we can hang out now.
Fearow cooed in agreement, "Fearow!"
Ash began to walk to Pallet town with Fearow, while the rest of the gang stood there staring.
Misty was the first to snap out of their trance, "H-he actually did it."
Brock snapped out as well, "Well, I guess that's just Ash for you, making friends with Pokemon is his strong suit."
Pikachu and Pidgeotto agreed.
They quickly followed Ash and Fearow all the way to a hilltop and gasped at the sight in front of them. Ash smiled. "Alright Pallet Town, future Pokemon Master Ash Ketchum is back!". He dashed across the field, releasing all his Pokemon (besides Charizard) to run beside him. Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Ivysaur, Squirtle and even Fearow flew or ran beside him as he ran home. A few townsfolk were a bit surprised, but after seeing who it was, giggled and went on with their day.
Misty and Brock ran behind him as they made their way across Pallet Town ending up at a small house around the edge of the forest. This was Ash's house.
Ash then yelled 'Mom I'm home!"
Delia burst out of the house, with an unusual pink Pokemon beside her to greet him. "Oh, Ash you're finally home! Did you eat well? Did you sleep well? Did you get into trouble? Have you caught any new friends? Have you changed you-"
Ash cut her off, "Mom, I'm fine, but who's that Pokemon?"
Delia then introduced them to her Pokemon, "Oh that's my Mr. Mime, surprisingly your father sent it to me after he heard you were on a journey a few months ago, I nicknamed him Mimey!"
"Mr. Mime…" Mimey said happily.
Ash was shocked, partially about the Pokemon but also about the fact that his mother mentioned about a father, especially considering that his birth father was dead. He quickly pulled out his Pokedex and scanned Mimey.
-MR. MIME THE BARRIER POKEMON, ALWAYS PRACTICES ITS PANTOMIME ACT. IT MAKES ENEMIES BELIEVE SOMETHING EXISTS THAT REALLY DOESN'T. -
Ash remembered that his friends were present and introduced them, and mentally reminded himself to talk to his
mother later in private about his father.
Delia, after talking to his friends for a bit, turned to Ash and said, "By the way Ash, your father also sent this to you."
She took a Pokeball out of her pocket and gave it to Ash. "He said it's a Pokemon that knew you."
Ash took the Pokeball and threw it.
"Haunter Haunt!"
"No way!"
And that's all for now. I actually edited this part before uploading it to Fanfiction, so hopefully it sounds better. One particular problem with a ton of Pokemon fanfics that I find is the overwhelming lack of presence of characters. Despite being so important, I've seen Ash fanfics with Pikachu appearing literally every 5 chapters. This becomes even bigger of a problem when even more Pokemon are put into the fic. Especially if nicknamed, I find it hard to follow those due to the overwhelming amount of Pokemon that are used, which is not only difficult to follow, but makes reduces the storytelling to only the humans and a few main pokemon, as the rest only make appearances once in a while and sometimes even never. This is why I plan to not actually have Ash catch a ton of Pokemon. More than the anime, but not too many, so it's easier to follow the story. I want to be able to develop actual character development in each Pokemon, just like the anime does, instead of make a magnitude of Pokemon with no personality or a personality only used once or twice. I want important characters like Pikachu to be noticed regularly as well. So hopefully I'll accomplish that. I'll get writing the next chapter soon, and Ash will train WELL, not HARD. So yeah. Also please post reviews, Im interested in knowing what you think about the story.