A/N: So to address what pokemon Ash will catch or obtain on his journey, I am definitely willing to take suggestions into consideration. I would like for Ash to have some Pokemon that are not typically in his party in most stories, however there is a reason some of them are so popular as many of them have a lot of potential to work with in a story. I have no plans to have Ash catch any legendaries, but I also only have a very rough idea of what direction I would like to go with the whole plot. I definitely would like to hear any concerns, suggestions, or simply constructive criticism if any of you would like to leave it in the reviews, or PM me. Last but not least, I am also interested in any suggestions for a name for Ash's Ekans. Now to Chapter 3.

Ash woke up the next morning, and rubbed his eyes blearily. He quickly took notice of the extra weight beside as realization again settled in his mind.

The egg had hatched! An ekans certainly wasn't what he expected, and one that was a shiny was even more of a surprise. Ekans wasn't a rare pokemon by any means, and were actually rather common. A shiny ekans was much more exotic for sure, but considering how common ekans were, it too was likely considered less special than say a shiny dratini or beldum. Regardless, Ash was very excited to have his second and also excited at the potential Ekans had shown already.

Ash got up, changed out of his sleepwear, and nudged his teammates awake. Eevee yawned in response, then slowly hopped off the bed and shook herself, ruffling her fur. Ekans simply raised his head from the coiled position he was in and looked at Ash.

"Hey buddy, I'm gonna return you while we go downstairs so that we don't draw too much attention okay? I think I will also let Nurse Joy give you a quick check up so don't freak out at her, it shouldn't take long and it's just to make sure there were no problems while you were in your egg. I'll probably send you back out when we call Professor Oak." Ash told Ekans.

Ekans bobbed his head in response and waited until Ash returned him.

Once Ekans had disappeared in the red light emitted from the pokeball, Ash picked up his backpack and he and Eevee headed out the door and downstairs. He immediately headed towards the pokecenter front counter which had no line at the time, and spoke to Nurse Joy, "Excuse me Nurse Joy, last night my new Ekans hatched from its egg and I was wondering if you could give him a quick check up in order to make sure there is nothing wrong with him?"

Joy seemed to perk up at the idea of a newly hatched pokemon, "Of course, that should be no problem at all! If you can give me his pokeball I'll be back as fast as I can with him."

He handed her the pokeball and thanked her before heading to the cafeteria to see if he could find Leaf. Ash found her in the same small booth they had sat in the day before and quickly bought a simple breakfast burrito that they were selling in the cafeteria, and sat down across from her.

"Ah, I was wondering when you would show up Ash, though you do look tired." Leaf started, smiling politely.

"Yes well, last night ended up a bit more eventful than expected." He joked, chuckling embarrassedly.

Leaf raised an eyebrow, "Oh, how so?"

Ash finished his bite of his burrito and responded, "Well-"

"Mr. Ketchum your pokemon is ready for retrieval!" They heard through the speakers.

"I'm going to get my pokemon, how about I tell you when we head out?" He asked, finishing his food.

"That's fine, I'll go get the rest of my things and meet you outside." She replied.

Ash got up, "Sounds good."

When Ash got to the counter Nurse Joy turned towards him, "That is quite an ekans you have there, very unusual color pallete I must say."

"He is certainly turning out to be very interesting." Ash smiled at her. "Were there any issues?"

Joy shook her head smiling, "No issues per say. Ekans is definitely a bit larger than most newborns of his species, however other than that everything seemed perfectly in order and your pokemon seems very healthy."

Ash nodded in thought, "I thought he seemed quite large considering how small ekans can be at times. Thank you for the check up."

"Oh, it was no problem at all, I enjoyed seeing such an uncommon specimen." the kind nurse responded.

Ash took his pokeball from the tray, and looked around for the video phones that were in pokecenters. He quickly found one in the corner that seemed private enough.

"Alright Eevee, let's see if we can talk to the Professor before we leave." He muttered typing in the Professor's number.

Eevee wagged her tail excitedly at the thought of seeing the nice professor again.

Professor Oak's face appeared on the screen, though he was looking away as though he were working on something.

"Ah Ash I was wondering when you'd call, how was Route 1?"

"Route 1 was good Professor, thanks for asking. What I'm really calling about will likely interest you more however. The egg hatched!" Ash spoke excitedly.

Oak quickly turned toward the camera and smiled at Ash, "That's great Ash, is it indeed an ekans?"

Ash laughed, "It is, but you'll never guess what else. It's a shiny ekans!"

The Professor's eyebrows rose, "Is it really? That is fascinating..." Oak trailed off for a moment, before continuing, "May I see it?"

Ash smiled and released Ekans, who quickly slithered up and across his shoulders and looked at the camera with him.

"Wow, what amazing coloring... Is there anything else interesting that occured from the breeding, Ash?" Oak asked interestedly.

"Well he has the egg moves Iron Tail and Slam, and he seems larger than the average ekans for his age." He responded.

"That makes sense, Dragonite was indeed taught Iron Tail, and Slam isn't an uncommon egg move for ekans. Bigger you say? Maybe it is from the latent dragon genes. The Ekans species is very distantly related, perhaps having a Dragonite as a parent made the genes a bit more prominent..." Oak thought then smiled, "Please do keep me updated Ash, I'd love to hear just what becomes of him. I'll be sure to keep Dragonite informed as well."

"Okay, will do Professor. Have a good day" Ash said grinning.

"You too Ash" He heard as the camera shut off.

Ash turned his head to talk to Ekans and Eevee, "You guys ready to head out?"

Ekans hissed and Eevee yipped.

They managed to get out of the pokemon center with little attention being drawn to them.

Leaf looked at him and raised an eyebrow at the sight of Ekans on his shoulders, "I'm guessing he has something to do with your late night?"

"Yes, do you have everything?" He asked. "I figure we'll have plenty of time to talk on the way to Pewter."

"Yep, I'm ready when you are." She replied.

Together they began the next section of their journeys.

Ash and Leaf had been walking through Viridian Forest for quite a bit, and had been sharing stories of how each other's trips through Route 1 went.

Eventually Leaf had to again raise the question, "So, what's the story with this shiny ekans?"

Ekans turned to look at her from his shoulder before laying back down across Ash's shoulders.

"Well," Ash began, "Professor Oak has a dragonite that apparently bred with arbok. Going back further though, me and dragonite have always had a good relationship, he even saved me from some rattatas when I was younger. I suppose due to this relationship dragonite felt that I would be a suitable trainer for the offspring."

"I see." Leaf said thoughtfully. "You and the Professor must be close then for him to be willing to give you the egg of one of his own pokemon." Leaf suggested curiously.

"Yeah, the Professor has always been somewhat of a mentor for me. I used to help care for the pokemon in his corral, in return he would allow me to sit in on some of his work and teach me the foundation of pokemon." Ash explained, thinking back to his time in the corral. "Me and Gary go back quite a ways as well. Him and I were top of our class, which probably had something to do with the professor's influence on each of us."

"Ah yes, Gary..." Leaf started. "He seems to pose an interesting figure."

"Yeah he can come off as a jerk and a snob sometimes." Ash responded, understanding what she was getting at. "He wasn't always like that, I think the reputation of being the grandson of Professor Oak simply got to him after a while. He'll probably cool down once he loses a few battles and realizes that he isn't Arceus' gift to the world."

Leaf laughed in response, and they continued on for a while.

After another hour of walking and talking Leaf freaked out.

"Eeeh!" She shrieked, batting a weedle that fell from a branch off her shoulder.

Weedle were a very common bug type, especially in Viridian Forest. They were a small, worm-like pokemon that had a small poisonous stinger on its head and tail. While they were dismissed by some trainers, they grew and evolved rather quickly and beedrill could be quite a threat to pokemon and trainers alike.

It wasn't very large, maybe a foot and a half long. But the size didn't matter. Weedle were poisonous, and to bigger pokemon it wouldn't matter much, but to humans the poison could be extremely dangerous, or potentially fatal. Ash and Leaf stepped back together, and Leaf's bulbasaur took initiative using vine whip to take care of the weedle.

"Okay we should probably be a bit more careful." Leaf whispered to Ash quietly.

Ash simply nodded in response and then turned to Eevee, "If you hear anything don't bother to make us aware okay?"

Eevee nodded her head seriously understanding the importance of her role.

Thankfully, they continued walking for the rest of the day with little interruptions. They encountered a Pidgey at some point which Leaf ended up catching with the help of her Bulbasaur's Vine Whip and a good Tackle.

When they could just barely see the light produced by sunset reflecting off the tree tops, they decided to set up camp. Ash put down ekans and collected some wood for the fire, while Leaf decided to release Pidgey and give it the rundown on how everything would work. While Ash prepared everything he had Eevee do some more light conditioning, they wouldn't need a full training session as they had walked for quite a while today.

At some point while Ash was attempting to start the fire, he turned around when he heard a small scuffle. There he saw Ekans wrestling around and hissing at a small weedle. Ash was initially worried until he realized that Weedle's poison wouldn't do much to Ekans as his body was built to produce much more potent venom, and that was if the weedle's small stinger could pierce Ekan's scales. Eventually Ekans wrapped himself around the small weedle and eventually it passed out in Ekans' tight grip. The end result was that Ash would not find feeding Ekan's to be necessary.

By the time Ash had gotten the fire set up, Leaf had returned and they both set out some food for Eevee and Bulbasaur respectively. Leaf had decided to let Pidgey go hunting for a small meal as long as it returned to them shortly. Once they and their pokemon had been fed they prepared for bed. They decided to leave their pokemon as their heightened senses would keep them safe when the fire inevitably went out.

The two went through a very similar pattern the next day, getting some training in, but mostly trying to get through the forest as fast as possible. Ekans was beginning to develop larger venom glands that would allow him to learn Poison Sting and he was growing longer daily, while Eevee's endurance had shot up quite a lot and her Quick Attack was becoming much faster. Leaf's Pidgey was beginning to show signs of evolution with small red feathers appearing at the top of its head. It was rather large when she had caught it so it made sense that it was nearing evolution. Her Bulbasaur had been training hard attempting to figure out the correct mixture of chemicals in order to achieve Sleep Powder.

It was the third day however that things changed a bit. Ash and Leaf were continuing through Viridian Forest when suddenly the bushes around them began rustling. Out of the bushes came five weedle surrounding them. Ekans quickly dropped off Ash's shoulders and began hissing and rattling his tail as they approached, while Eevee stood steadfast and ready to protect her master and friends. Leaf's bulbasaur stood by her with its vines out ready to protect her, while her hand was placed on Pidgey's pokeball ready to release him in a moment's notice.

The weedle were certainly the biggest they had seen yet. Before, the largest they had seen weren't even half of Ekan's full length. These weedle were well over half his length being roughly three feet long each.

Ash's group was doing well defending so far, as Ekans' had one weedle pinned down, Eevee raced around the other two weedles occasionally getting a decent hit with Quick Attack, and Bulbasaur whipped the final two weedles around rather well. Things were looking rather good and Ekans' was almost done with his fight, coiling tightly around the still smaller weedle who couldn't get enough power behind it's tail to actually stab through any of Ekans' stronger scales. Ekan's unconventionally uncurled and swung the light weighted weedle with his own tail into a tree and then used a final slam to finish the fight. Then, everything went wrong.

As soon as the first weedle was out, he heard a high-pitched squeal from where Eevee was fighting the other two weedle. It seemed they had caught on to the fact that they couldn't catch her and used string shot just enough to slow her down. When she got too close to one of them it swiped her with its stinger cutting her slightly making her back up quickly. She, in her frantic state, hadn't noticed that the other weedle had slipped behind her and it too stuck her with its stinger. Eevee would need medical attention rather quickly. This wasn't the only issue however.

As soon as Leaf released Pidgey to help, Ash heard a buzzing from her side of the battle. It seemed they had disturbed a beedrill during the battle. Beedrill were typically rather territorial and protective of weedle. They may have gotten lucky as no other beedrill were in sight yet, but one beedrill was a big enough problem. Weedle could be dealt with, however in the state they were currently in, a beedrill was far outside of their league.

Ash quickly sprinted over to Eevee and picked her up while Ekans hissed at the beedrill. Leaf's pidgey was diving over the weedle keeping them distracted and even managed to pluck one up, and spear it's midsection with his sharp beak finishing it off. The bigger problem was the beedrill.

Ekans' hissing eventually drew the beedrill's attention and it flew quickly over to Ekans' who managed to just barely slither out of the way of one of the beedrill's lunges. Before the beedrill could lunge again, Ash had picked up a rock in the hand that wasn't carrying Eevee, and threw it at the beedrill.

The rock hit the beedrill in the back of head, and it instantly turned its large red eyes in Ash's direction. Ash turned to get some distance, but Leaf too seemed to get the idea and threw a stone at the beedrill in order to save Ash some time.

The beedrill quickly swung towards her and she too turned to run. Unfortunately, about three steps into her run, she tripped and fell face down onto the forest floor. Beedrill was flying as fast as it could towards her, and just before it got within striking distance, a miracle happened.

Bulbasaur, in an entirely instinctual act to save it's trainer, spewed a small geyser of powder straight into the face of the beedrill. Bulbasaur's Sleep Powder was a work in progress, but in this moment that didn't matter. In all of their eyes, it wasn't important if the Sleep Powder was safe to use on other pokemon, or if it was too potent to be battle ready. All that mattered to Ash and Leaf was that the beedrill, as of that moment, was out for the count.

"Ash! We need to get Eevee to a pokemon center quickly!" Leaf yelled to him.

"I know, we have to be close to Pewter City by now let's run for it!" Ash screamed back.

Leaf quickly returned Bulbasaur in order to run faster, and yelled for Pidgey to follow them, who was just finishing off the last weedle.

They sprinted as fast as they could, and eventually they had found their way out of Viridian Forest, and found their way to Pewter City.

There was a man at the entrance to the city that greeted them, "Hello welcome to-"

"We have a poisoned pokemon! Where is the pokemon center?" Ash cut him off quickly, worried about Eevee.

"Uh-I-Its on the corner of this street on your right!" The man stuttered back.

Leaf and Ash bolted to the Pokemon Center and pushed the doors open. Ash then raced to the counter with Eevee still in his arms.

"Nurse Joy! Eevee was poisoned by two large weedles, can you help her!? Please?" He asked frantically.

"Yes of course!" Joy quickly took Eevee from his arms. "Chansey!" She shouted, turning to the large pink pokemon often found aiding the Nurse's. "Take the eevee to the back while I get the antidote ready!" She raced to another room to do just that.

Ash numbly sat down next to Leaf and she placed her hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure she'll be fine, weedle poison is usually pretty slow acting, and we got here pretty quick." She stated rather confidently.

"I know," Ash said shakily, "I'm just worried for her."

While Ash was worried, he knew bothering Nurse Joy would do no good for Eevee. Knowing this, he sighed and resigned himself to wait for Joy to return with what would be hopefully good news.