Chapter One: The Journey Begins
Ash decided to stop home before beginning his journey. He still had yet to see his starter pokemon, Torchic, but he didn't want to start the long process of meeting his Pokemon, talking to him or her, getting it to agree to accompany him on the journey, and slowly develop a trusting relationship without first starting his journey. His home was one of the smaller ones in Pallet, in the lower end. Though Pallet was a small town, and there was only one school, it was easy to tell the rich kids from the not-so-rich ones. Ash's mother, Delia Ketchum, worked hard, but worked at low pay, and they barely had enough to get by.
Gary, of course, was filthy rich. His father, Red Oak, was one of the most publicized trainers in the world, and he was idolized by many of the students at Ash's school, which, of course, trickled down to Gary. Even though many of the kids thought Gary as a douchebag, they realized that he was both rich and powerful, and tried to stay away from his bad side. The fact that Ash did not care what Gary did upset him, and he was constantly trying to get a rise out of Ash. He was Ash's self-proclaimed "rival" though he really didn't do much to get in Ash's way.
At the age of fifteen, all of the students have the choice of what to do with their futures. Though Pokemon training is a highly publicized profession, it is considered almost impossible to rank highly, and is thus not pursued by many individuals. In Ash's year, there were four aspiring Pokemon trainers; most years, there were only one or two from Pallet town. Regardless, most trainers quit within a year. From there, they had a multitude of options, ranging from regular human professions, such as being an engineer or a lawyer, or a Pokemon-related profession, such as a Pokemon healer. It was actually quite easy to heal any Pokemon, assuming of course that they did not have lasting damage. The damage done in simple Pokemon battles could be healed in the matter of minutes through technology developed by the Kanto government, and was commercialized through Pokemon centers, and products such as Potions that were essential to Pokemon training.
Regardless, Ash came back to his small house, and walked inside. Immediately his mother began fussing over him.
"Oh, I heard about your battle with Gary today," she said. "I'm so proud of you, so proud. But to think you'll be going off on your adventure so soon, you have to come and visit some time."
"Oh I will," Ash said.
"Now, I know we don't have a lot, but I put together something for you that'll be useful for you on your journey, and I want you to take it without a fuss, okay Ash," Delia said.
"Okay mom." Ash said.
"Alright, come to the living room then," Delia said. Ash walked forward to the living room and ... saw Pokemon trainer paradise. It was basically everything he needed to be a successful Pokemon trainer. He had a large backpack with enough space for the small tent that came with it, a belt that had space for twenty Pokeballs, a bike, a few Potions, and a few other assorted medicines. This must have cost a small fortune.
"It's all secondhand, of course," Delia said. "But it's all great, I've been saving up for your journey, and I want you to have it."
Ash was speechless. This was the greatest thing anyone had ever done for him. He walked up to his mother, with small tears forming within his eyes, and hugged her deeply.
"Thank you, mom," he said. "And when I become the very best trainer, we're going to buy a mansion, and be richer than Gary Oak. I promise I'll pay you back for all this stuff."
"Oh, this," she said. "There's no payment necessary. I'm happy to do it for my only son."
"Thank you. Well, I should really be going," Ash said.
"Yes, you definitely should," said Delia. She showed him how to pack up the small tent, and fold it into the bag, and showed him the different spaces for Pokeballs and potions. Ash carefully noted everything, and got ready to leave for his journey. It was about noon, and he knew for a fact that Gary would be leaving at one. Of course, he also knew that Gary would be driving, while he would be walking, but that just showed that Gary had no opportunity to train his Pokemon.
So with a deep breath, Ash had taken his first step as a Pokemon trainer, on to route one.
He decided that now would be a good time to release Torchic, and he had an entire speech planned out for the occasion.
He released the Torchic out of the small Pokeball, and immediately noticed that it looked different from your standard Torchic. Ash was no Torchic expert, but it didn't take a fool to realize that the average Torchic was much larger than the one Ash had received. It seemed that Oak had shortchanged Ash yet again with this Torchic mishap.
Ash let out a frustrated groan; he couldn't get anything, could he. Not money, not cars, not even a dad. And now this was his newest failure. A tiny Torchic.
It seemed that Torchic had picked up on Ash's judgement of him, and the bird-like Pokemon seemed to be bristled. Before Ash knew it, a powerful Ember attack headed his way. This Torchic was out for blood. Ash quickly dodged, and this seemed to pacify the Torchic for a bit.
"Hmm, maybe I misjudged you," Ash said. "You're just like me. At first glance, you're worthless. I mean I'm poor, don't listen to the powerful and the rich, you're small and apparently unruly. But see, people like us have gotta work together. We're not going to be able to take down the powerful people alone, right. So, what do you say. Wanna come with me on a Pokemon journey?"
Torchic looked at Ash, then looked away, folding his arm-like appendages and shaking his head. Ash sighed - this was not going to be easy.
"Aww, come on Torchic. You don't even know me." Ash said.
Torchic again turned away in anger.
"Well alright then, fine. Who else is going to train you anyways. You know, you're a pathetic Pokemon. Not only are you tiny and weak, but you're also stubborn. Hell, you can't even listen properly." Ash yelled.
Torchic turned around and glared at him before attacking with what Ash considered to be some sort of a fire type move. Large flames were emitted by the fire-pokemon, in a move that Ash thought was extremely powerful. They managed to catch on his jacket, and Ash quickly put them out, thus ruining his clothes.
"Alright, fine. You might be a little powerful, but that doesn't mean that you're not a douche. Well, come on, we have to get to Viridian by nightfall, and I don't want to sleep on the ground, so we've gotta get a room at the Pokemon center." Ash said.
Torchic refused to move.
"Well then fine. You're not going to get any food then, are you," Ash asked.
Torchic seemed intrigued now. He turned his head toward Ash, and whispered "Tor?"
"Yeah, that's right. I'll just eat all your Poke-food." Ash said.
"TOR," Torchic yelled.
"That's the spirit. Now come on, we don't have all day." Ash said. He started walking along the trail, without Torchic, because he knew that Torchic would follow him.
Torchic seemed to be weighing his options, before deciding to follow Ash. He was so bribable.
Ash quickly walked toward Viridian. The town was a few miles away, so it would be good training for Torchic to battle a couple of wild Pokemon along the way. He stopped and allowed Torchic to catch up with him.
Ash knew that many beginning trainers would foolishly attempt to catch as many Pokemon as possible. He also knew that many of the Pokemon that could be found early on, were really not that powerful even in their final evolution states. Even the strongest Pidgeys or Rattatas would pale in comparison to other, stronger Pokemon, and even the few Pikachu that could be found along the early routes weren't too strong either. Ash was going for a team of about fifteen to twenty Pokemon overall, and he was planning on only catching a few originally from Kanto. He knew which Pokemon were on his yes list, and those that were on his no list too. He wanted a Scyther, so that he could evolve it to a Scizor, a Dratini if he could find one, a Chansey from the Safari Zone, an Eevee to evolve to Vaporeon, Espeon, or Jolteon. He might get a few others if he could find them, but Ash thought it was rather unlikely. For now, he'd just work with Torchic to see what he could do.
"So Torchic," Ash said gently. "Are you willing to come with me on my journey?" he asked.
Torchic seemed to be thinking about it for a couple of seconds. It would hurt his pride to accept Ash as his trainer, but that was the only way he could get larger and stronger. And he wanted to prove everyone wrong for thinking he was a worthless Pokemon. "TOR," he yelled in approval.
"Alright then, we've got to start on the trail. Let's go, first break's not till we reach Viridian."
Mainland Kanto was quite small really, but that was to be expected. Pallet Town and Viridian City were eight miles away from each other, and Kanto's diameter was probably a total of only one hundred miles, max. Ash continued to walk along the path from Pallet to Viridian, stopping every few minutes to have Torchic battle a wild Pokemon. There were mainly small Ratattas in the bushes, with a few Pidgey's and Sparrow's here and there, and Torchic's powerful Embers allowed it to tear through the wild Pokemon. Torchic seemed willing to work with Ash, even though it was a bit prideful, and Ash thought it was the beginning of a strong friendship.
About four miles in, Ash decided to stop at a small stream to refresh himself. He had kept Torchic out of his Poke-ball, as Torchic did not want to be confined into the small space, and let him wander around as he filled up his water bottle from the stream. Carefully adding the required amount of iodine, and then adding a filter to the top of his water bottle, Ash replenished his water supply. He reached into his backpack to take out one the sandwiches that his mom had packed for him, and started looking around for Torchic. He immediately spotted the Pokemon, and it seemed he had gotten into an altercation with a couple of Spearows. Ash decided to let Torchic handle this one, as there were only three, and he was confident in Torchic's abilities.
This proved to be a mistake. Without Ash's guidance, Torchic was incapable of battling well on his own. He required a series of instructions to go against three opponents at the same time, and while he did win the fight, he was badly injured afterwards, with the three Spearows fainting.
Ash quickly rushed over and took a look at Torchic. He seemed to be extremely tired, and injured as well. Ash quickly took out a Potion from his backpack and sprayed it over Torchic. It helped, but not enough. Ash knew that Torchic was going to be alright, but he would not be able to battle, and had to be taken to the Pokemon center immediately. Unfortunately, he was perfectly half-way between Viridian City and Pallet Town, which meant that the nearest Pokemon center would be pretty far off.
Ash ran along the stream and noticed that it grew bigger and bigger, with its current going faster and faster, slowly becoming a river instead of a stream. Ash knew that there were few Pokemon near the river, and he did not want to be attacked by one. Besides, the few bird pokemon and Ratattas would scurry along rather than fight him, so he just wanted to make it to Viridian as quickly as possible. He could train Torchic later.
Ash stopped running, and slowed to a simple walking pace as he went along the river. It was best that he conserved his strength; after all, he did need to make it to Viridian.
Stopping for a drink of water from his water bottle, Ash noticed a dark figure swimming through the water. Ash was fairly sure that it was a Pokemon, but he was curious as to what Pokemon it was.
He shouldn't have asked.
The Pokemon jumped out of the water, revealing one of the most powerful and dangerous Pokemon in the world. It was easily recognizable as a Gyarados. Of course, Ash being Ash, felt he had a need to capture the powerful water type Pokemon.
He had been given a few Poke-balls from Professor Oak as a part of the obligations of a Pokemon professor to an upcoming Pokemon trainer. Ash decided thatt he would use one to try to capture this Gyarados. But first, the Pokemon had to be weakened.
How could Ash do that? His Torchic was wounded, and he did not want to risk it being hurt by the mighty Gyarados.
Ash didn't have time to answer his tentative question as the powerful Gyarados let out a deep roar at him. He decided that there was no way he could capture this enormous beast, as he was far too inexperienced, and decided to run for it.
One thing that Ash did not know about Gyarados was that it was capable of slithering on land just as easily as it could function in the water. And the Gyarados made chase toward Ash. Ash did not know why; what could a Gyarados want from him? To eat him? Pokemon usually weren't hostile to humans, and he had never heard of a case of a Pokemon eating a human. Whatever it was that Gyarados wanted from him, Ash didn't want to find out. He ran as fast as he could away from the powerful Pokemon.
Ash turned backwards, and immediately was further frightened; the Gyarados was gaining on him. He supposed that the Gyarados did not want him encroaching on its territory; that was probably why it was chasing him. But regardless, Ash decided that his only option was to attempt to catch the rowdy Pokemon. He knew that his odds were at best one in a hundred, but he hoped that the Gyarados could be caught.
Ash threw his Poke-ball as hard as he could at the extremely large beast. The Poke-ball turned three times, then stopped. Gyarados had been caught.
Ash let out an immediate sigh of relief as he bent over to pick up the Poke-ball that contained the enormous beast. He was not going to try to release Gyarados for a while- he wasn't suicidal. He kept it safe in his backpack, instead of on his belt, as Ash recognized that he probably wasn't experienced enough to use Gyarados at the moment. He definitely wasn't going to register this Pokemon in his Poke-dex; it was linked to Professor Oak still, and
Ash made his way back to the main route from Pallet to Viridian and continued walking. In two hours, he had reached Viridian. Ash quickly rushed into the Pokemon center, and asked for the nurse to heal his Pokemon. Pokemon training was heavily subsidized by the government, as it provided immense entertainment for the worldwide residents, and that the government had a monopoly on running tournaments - at least in Kanto. Many of the Pokemon trainers throughout the world were considered above the law, and were asked to help in law-related affairs.
In any event, Ash was given a room to stay in and a bit of food, all for free. He thought it was a pretty good deal.
After receiving his Torchic back, Ash decided to go back to the forest and train. Torchic seemed to be a bit more humble after the Spearrow incident, and he actually listened to Ash instead of just ignoring him. Ash used Torchic against a bunch of wild Pokemon, and was quite pleased with the results. After a while, Torchic learned some new moves as well: Peck, Flame Wheel, and Double Kick, all powerful moves in their own right. He battled two trainers and beat them both, but they were both beginning trainers who each only had one Pokemon. Ash hadn't seen Gary yet, but Gary was probably taking the paved road, so he probably wouldn't have to encounter Gary much. Though Ash did wonder how Gary was planning on training his Pokemon.
But Ash was very pleased with Torchic's progress. He did not dare to release Gyarados; he would do so when Torchic evolved.
Ash headed back up to Viridian to stay at the Pokemon center, his training done for the day. After eating a hearty meal, he left to explore the town.
Ash stayed in Viridian for a couple of days, spending all of his free time training Torchic to a sufficient level. Torchic was now fairly powerful, and would grow to be extremely powerful, despite Oak's statements or his small size. A few evenings later, Ash decided he was going to take a break from training and see what was going on.
Though Ash wasn't very well off, his one point of pride was his MacBook Pro. That was the only expensive item he possessed, and he had won it in a raffle. He was going to sell it, but Ash's mother didn't want him to let go of something that cool. He therefore kept the laptop on him at all times.
It was probably for the better that he did so. For that evening in Viridian, he found a large dome-like structure that seemed to be a Poke-sim battling expo.
Ash didn't have much money on him; he won a hundred bucks each from both of the trainers he faced, and he had five hundred dollars himself, which was about equivalent to three Poke-balls. But this Poke-sim expo would be his ticket to large amounts of money. And he figured that there was no way Gary would turn down a challenge like this. It would be nice to beat Gary yet again.
Ash went to the front counter and signed up for the competition, which was strictly for amateurs only. There was no registration fee, as each individual round had its own betting. Ash was lucky that he made it just in time, as the tournament was limited to sixty-four spots, and Ash was sixty-second. He took a good look at the tournament bracket, and found that Gary would also be competing, as he previously thought. Though Gary was in a different bracket; both would need to make it to the top four to face off against each other.
Ash booted up the Teambuilder software, and selected one of his many teams. It was go time.
He was up against some girl named Caitlin. She seemed pretty cute, but that didn't mean Ash wasn't going to go all out in the match.
After waiting for all of the other preliminary matches to finish, Ash finally got to go against the girl. He twisted his cap to the back of his head, and plugged in his laptop to the screen. There was an initial bet that both had to agree on, and they decided to go with 500 dollars. Ash was fairly confident of his abilities; after all, he was able to defeat Gary.
He breezed through the match easily, only losing two Pokemon to her, then deciding to switch to his B team for future rounds. He quickly rose through the ranks, defeating all of the introductory trainers easily with many different teams, noting with a smirk that Gary had lost in the third round. He was able to win the small tournament, making a total of 6000 dollars off his intelligence and Poke-sim battling experience, and was able to humiliate Gary, who at this point, was sitting in the stands, fuming, with his cheerleaders next to him consoling him. He had started a petty smear technique using Ash's own name during his rounds, saying "Bash on Ash", but it really was not all that witty and did not catch on. As his victory prize, Ash was given a choice of three different unknown Pokemon, each, he was promised, would grow to be exceptionally strong. He picked up one of the balls and placed it onto his belt. Giving the dome one last look, he casually walked back to the Pokemon center excited at the prospect of having high amounts of money - more than he had ever had before. He whistled a merry tune, only to find that Gary was standing in front of the Pokemon center, with his cheerleaders in tow. He stepped up to Ash as he was walking on the sidewalk toward the center.
"Well, well, well, Ash," Gary said. "We meet again."
"Actually, I saw you in that tournament over there," Ash quibbed.
"Ah yes, the Poke-sim tournament. Tell me, did it feel good to finally be good at something. Well you're not even good, you're terrible. You just got lucky." Gary said.
"What do you want, Gary?" Ash asked, frustrated.
"Hmm, what do I want. How about a Pokemon battle? Tell you what, if you can manage to beat me, I'll give you a thousand bucks. You don't have to give me anything when you lose, I'm sure the humiliation will be good enough. Besides, you're too poor to pay me properly." Gary smirked at his own line.
"Alright fine, you're on Gary." Ash said.
"Your Pokemon healed?" Gary asked.
"Yes," Ash said.
"Then let's go," he said, gesturing toward his car. "Hop in, it may be the only time you ever get to ride in one of these things. Ladies, I'll see you later."
"Where are we going?" Ash asked.
"You'll see," Gary said, driving through the streets of Viridian. Viridian City was about two miles wide, and Gary quickly drove to the other end of the small area.
"Well, Ashy-boy. We're here." Gary said, pointing at a small abandoned lot.
'So this was Gary's game,' Ash thought to himself. 'He doesn't want to make a fool out of himself if he loses, yet wants to see what Pokemon I have. Then, next time he challenges me, he'll be able to do it publicly if he thinks he's better than me.'
"Alright, Gary. Let's get this over with." Ash said.
"So, how many Pokemon have ya got?" Gary asked.
"Two. You?" Ash asked.
"Ha. Only two? Really?" Gary snided. "Fine, I'll go easy on you. We'll have a two on two match. Prepare to be amazed."
Ash sighed at Gary's theatrics. "Since we want to keep this fair, why don't we pick which Poke-ball we're going to use before we throw it so that we know no cheating's involved." Gary said. That was, after all, standard procedure.
"Sure," Ash said, clutching his new Pokeball. He knew which Pokemon Gary had, a Squirtle and a Dratini- unless he caught some new ones. He threw his out as Gary threw his as well, hoping that his Pokemon was something good.
"Hahahahah," Gary chortled. "You're planning on beating my Squirtle with that little thing."
Ash confirmed that Gary's Pokemon was indeed a Squirtle before looking down at his own pokemon, which seemed to be ... a Rattata. Great. Now he'd have to lose to Gary.
The Pokemon turned toward him, tilted his head, and winked. Ash didn't know what that meant, but he hoped it was good.
"Okay, go Ratatta, use Tackle." Ash yelled.
The pokemon looked back at him and sighed, before turning back to the Squirtle. Squirtle seemed to be attacking with Water Gun. Ash turned down to look at his Rattata, but it was gone.
"Hey, I thought we were playing by standard rules. No substitutions," Gary yelled from across the field.
Suddenly a dark black blur sped straight into Squirtle, knocking him off his feet. Instead of a Rattata, a dark fox-like Pokemon was standing in front of Ash.
"What the hell is that thing?" Gary said. "You can't have a wild Pokemon fighting your battles. You're obviously just a cheater."
"I didn't cheat," Ash yelled. "I have no idea what happened, but I didn't cheat."
"Oh yeah? Then how did that thing get there? What is it anyways?" Gary asked.
What was that Pokemon? Ash was fairly certain it wasn't common in Kanto, and also probably hadn't seen it before, or he'd definitely remember what it was. Taking out his Pokedex, he scanned the dark Pokemon and was surprised to find that it was a Zoura, a Unovan native.
"Zorua, the Tricky Fox Pokémon. Zorua hides its true form by changing its shape into people and Pokémon, and loves to surprise people." the Poxedex said.
"No way. How'd such a loser like you get your hands on such a rare Pokemon. I bet you stole it," Gary yelled.
"Did not." Ash said.
"Did too. Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'll hand your ass to you with my main Pokemon. Go Dratini." Gary said.
"Zoura, do what you just did before," Ash commanded.
The Pokemon turned back to his trainer then shook his head. Instead of attacking, he stood in place, and let the opposing Pokemon attack him. He fell, and was out of the match.
Predictable. Just when things were starting to go Ash's way, he'd be given an unruly Pokemon. Well, if he couldn't handle it, then nobody could.
"Go Torchic," Ash said throwing down his other Pokeball. Gary had an annoying smirk plastered over his face, Ash knew why, Gary thought his Pokemon was a dud. Well he'd have to prove Gary wrong then.
"Dratini, take care of it," Gary said, pointing to Torchic. Ash growled, and said "Torchic, Double Kick"
What happened next would shock Gary for weeks. As Dratini poised, ready to attack, Ash's seemingly worthless Pokemon lashed out, striking with two powerful kicks, effectively ruining any setup that Dratini had. From there, Torchic didn't let up either. At Ash's command, he made a strong Pecking motion at Dratini and added a Flame Wheel all in one strong combination without even giving Dratini a chance to do anything.
It seemed Gary really underestimated Ash's team.
"Yes!" Ash yelled in victory at Gary's shell-shocked expression. "Pay up."
Gary took a moment to recover than quipped back "Fine, even though that wasn't a real battle, I was going easy on you after all. But you're so poor, I guess you need the money. Smell ya later, loser."
Ash walked back to the Pokemon center, ready to spend the night. He was eager to work with Zoura and Torchic tomorrow, and make them gym ready. From there, he'd travel to Pewter, and then take on the rock gym.
Further AN:
1. If you're wondering where Misty is, she's coming.
2. I'm planning a short time-skip to when Ash is in Pewter for the next chapter.