Chapter II Part I: I choose you
As Ash walked into the lab calling "Grandpa," he was hit by a wave of nostalgia. This would be the last time he saw this place in a while. Granted that he survived, he might come back someday.
"Hello, Ash. You've come for your Pokemon right?" the smiling face of Professor Oak greeted Ash, as Oak stepped out from behind a book shelf, presumably storing away notes on something or another.
"Yes, I am, grandfather." Ash said, trying to be formal. It was one of the defining moments of his life, for better or worse. Probably for worse, but hey, you never know. Something good might come out of this... yeah, probably not.
"Good, good, not much to say besides the generic questions, like, are your ready?" Oak asked/stated.
"No, but I don't have a choice at this point." Ash muttered.
Oak looked at his grandson for a few seconds, trying to figure out whether to reply to that, before choosing not to, and saying, "So which of the three starters did you want?"
Ah, the three starters, the water starter, Squirtle, the grass starter, Bulbasaur, and the fire starter, Charmander.
Squirtle was also known as the turtle Pokemon, and evolved into Wartortle, and finally Blastoise, and ash had to admit, Blastoise looked awesome. It had two canons sticking out of its back. How cool is that?
As a Blastoise, it would weigh nearly 188.5 lbs, and stand at 5'3'', so while not the largest Pokemon, simply bumping into a human could still cause moderate amounts of damage. An actual attack, even a tackle could do more serious damage, thanks to its weight.
A Bulbasaur evolved into a Venesaur, also known as the biological nightmare. Venesaur was among the more powerful grass poison combinations on the planet, which gave it a diverse stat effect move pool, allowing it to play with battlefield to its hearts content. A strong Venesaur could eat other poisons and reproduce it giving it multiple versions of attacks like Poison Powder, and Stun Spore.
A Venesaur's potential is best exploited by a skilled trainer with good memory in terms of remembering the different customized powders, Venesaur could produce.
Despite all this, put crudely, Ash couldn't give a shit about either of those Pokemon.
Why? The third Pokemon outclassed them both.
A charmander, evolves into a Charizard, a dual flying/fire type, with a dragon egg group. Yeah, that's right, a dragon. As in those highly overpowered uber monsters that trounced everything. Need proof? The champion for Jhoto was the dragon specialist, Lance. The Champion for Sinnoh was the dragon specialist Cynthia. The Orange Island Champion was Drake, a dragon specialist. The list goes on, but there was one thing everyone could agree with. Dragons were abnormally strong, and they were abnormally rare.
Only the strongest trainers could successfully find, raise, and tame dragons.
Ash wasn't one of the strongest trainers, and he had no plans to be. His understanding of battles were limited to having the Pokemon keep him alive. What better than a dragon to get it done? Plus, once Charmander evolved into a Charizard, it could fly, and that would keep him out of harms way. He could fly to Celadon, skipping Pewter and Cerulean City, and the badge no problem.
It was with all this in mind, that Ash said, "I'll take Charmander."
Oak nodded, and handed his grandson the Pokeball containing Charmander, which Ash graciously took, before choosing not to open it. It was better to get himself a weapon before greeting his new Pokemon. Just in case it turned out to be not as tamed as expected.
It was probably better to also get a good look at its move pool with his Pokedex, to figure out how it might attack him. Unleashing the best and being prepared for a charge and scratch combo, only to get a stationary ember was not how he wanted to do this.
He was brought out of his thoughts, when Oak said, "Okay, here are your five pokeballs, your pokedex, the 500 pokedollar's that the league gives the starting trainers, and the additional 1,000 I'm giving you as your grandfather. Now that your all set, feel free to get going."
Ash nodded at the dismissal, politely saying, "Have a nice day."
Most of his talks with his grandfather was like this. Distant and cordial. Like they were strangers and in a sense they were. Strangers that lived under the same roof were still strangers after all.
Ash turned to leave when his grandfather called out, "Oh, and Ash, here's some advice. Go straight to Viridian and head to the Pokemart. Stock up on potions there, before coming back to Route One. Stay there for a few weeks to train, before considering your next move."
Ash paused before nodding at the advice and continuing onward.
Authors Note:
I had a lot planned for this chapter, but its 10 o'clock, and i have school in the morning, so I decided to pack up. I'll reload this chapter in a few days with revisions and I'll complete the rest of it.
Cya.