Just Another Pawn

by ThatOneFanficGuy

Ash has a fateful encounter on his birthday, giving him a newfound intelligence and aura. Now equipped with a new weapon, Ash goes on his journey throughout the pokemon world. But because of his unique circumstance, he's forced to watch as the facade of the world fades before his eyes. This story is focused on Ash's reasoning for his actions. Smart Ash.

3. Chapter 3: The First Pokemon

Just Another Pawn

Edited as of 3/26/2018

Chapter 3: The First Pokemon

5 Years Later

"Ash, wake up!" my mom yelled.

I was in my clothes and out of my room in record time. I was finally starting my pokemon journey! Aura is fun and all, but sometimes it's nice to take a break.

I ran down the stairs, letting my hand glide down the railing. The aroma of pancakes slowed my pace to a stop at the bottom. A childish grin grew on my features, prompting me to run to the kitchen. My suspicions were confirmed. There was a stack of 6 pancakes on a plate with a square of butter on top and streams of syrup flowing down the sides.

My heart stopped. The similarities were uncanny. The pancakes, the aroma, the setup. I rapidly turned left and right, looking for the man.

My mom giggled, "Honey, nothing's happened. You've got to stop being so paranoid! Caution is a good, paranoia is not."

I sighed, letting out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. I walked over to the chair to start eating my pancakes. I didn't have to be at the professor's for at least another hour, so I had time.

I absently let my mind wander to the day the professor took me in as an apprentice. The training he gave me was definitely different than what I had expected. In fact, most of the training was on pokemon and logical reasoning while practising menial aura exercises in the background. As he put it, "Control over your aura will make using it in the future much easier". So far, I'm pretty sure he was just too lazy to teach me anything useful about aura. Bastard.

Half an hour passed before my mind had caught up to my body. I was greeted to the sight of my mom holding up my backpack to me, a few tears flowing down her face.

"Be *sniff* careful out there honey. I don't want to lose my son!"

She broke into tears.

I set my backpack on the floor, then walked up and hugged her, lightly patting her back.

"I'm gonna be fine, mom. Besides, don't you think this is kind of insulting? I've trained under professor Oak for 5 years, and this is your confidence in me?" I joked.

She cracked a small smile, "*sniff* You're right, honey," she let go of the hug, and sternly grabbed my shoulders. "You'd better be okay then! If I don't hear from you in one week, I'm calling the police to find you!"

A bead of sweat dripped down my temple. It always surprised me how fast my mother could change her emotions.

I ran to the door, flinging my backpack over my shoulders, "Okay, mom! See you then!"

I ran out the door, sprinting to professor Oak's lab.

o0O-O0o

I couldn't resist the smile tempting my face when I saw the lab coming into the distance. I wasn't sure when I had stopped running, but I'm glad I did. The day was perfect! It was almost as if Arceus himself knew this was the first day of my pokemon journey.

As I started getting closer, I saw a red convertible parked just outside the lab.

Weird, I don't remember professor Oak owning such a nice car.

I rang the doorbell of the lab.

"Ahh, Ash! I'm glad you could make it. Please, come in!"

I walked in to see a not-so-familiar sight. Instead of the normal lab equipment, there was only a single pedestal containing three pokeballs. Left to right, there was Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur.

"Ash, there is a bench next to the door you can sit on while you wait," the professor said from his chair at a computer.

Wow, he got to his chair fast. Though, I guess that shouldn't surprise me.

I walked over and sat on the bench.

Which pokemon do I want? There's the brawn of charizard, the defence of blastoise, and the support of venusaur. Does it really matter? Regardless of what I get, I'm sure I can make it work. Eh, whatever, I'll just take whatever's left.

A minute passed, and another kid slammed the door open.

"Hey gramps, where's my pokemon?" the kid asked cockily.

Gary Oak, the professor's grandson, sometimes assistant. He wasn't a bad kid, but he was annoying as hell. His arrogance was so high, I wondered if he even saw the people below it.

"You'll have to wait Gary, only you and Ash have arrived so far."

That's when Gary took notice of me. We'd never been on good terms. He always accused of me of "stealing his grandfather". He tried to pretend I didn't exist. Whenever he did see me, he never saw someone skilled or smart. Nope, I was just that one annoying kid. Though, I guess that's how I saw him too.

"Whatever," Gary replied defiantly.

He walked over and sat by me. We sat in relative silence, no more than the occasional sniff, until the door slammed open once again. Two kids walked in. One was a shorter guy with brown hair and pale skin; he looked painfully innocent. The other was taller with a dark blue mohawk and very tanned skin.

Hasn't anyone ever heard of manners?

"Sorry we're late!" the short one frantically yelled, "We got lost on the way from Viridian! We didn't mean to be late! We're sorry!"

I looked at the clock. 8:57

"You're 3 minutes early. Stop throwing a hissy fit and sit down. We don't need two idiots without enough of a brain to have a simple sense of time. I'm sure we'll get our pokemon when the professor's ready."

Apparently, I had offended them. Truth be told, I wanted to see their reaction. If they blew up, they probably wouldn't make it too far. If they didn't, at least they had a level head.

The tanned one spoke up this time, "What'd you say! I'll beat yo ass all the way to Kalos! Don't mess with us! If you got a problem wit' us, then fight us!"

The pale one slowly walked backwards and tried to fade into the background.

I stood up, ready to stop the guy if he attacked me. I don't like judging by appearances, but he looked like the type of guy who'd punch you because of a wrong look.

And he did! He ran at me, right fist pulled back next to his head. I sighed, such a brute tactic. A second before his fist collided with me, I tilted my head to the right just enough to make a gap for his fist to fly through. As it passed by, I kneed him in the gut, causing him to spit up saliva.

"ENOUGH! I WILL NOT HAVE THIS FIGHTING IN MY LAB! SIT DOWN AND YOU'LL GET YOUR POKEMON," professor Oak yelled.

Even I was scared. The tension in the air was practically smellable - or, actually, that scent probably belonged to someone else.

We all sat down on the bench, too afraid to move or speak. A minute of chilling silence passed before the professor decided to break the tension.

"Okay everyone, come up here and we'll decide who gets what pokemon," he said, annoyance slipping through his words.

We all walked to the pedestal.

"As you may have noticed, we only have 3 pokemon. Fear not, there is an extra pokemon, but he is very unruly. I'll let you decide who takes it."

"What pokemon is it?" the pale kid asked.

"While it isn't a rare pokemon, I won't tell you what it is. I don't want its species to influence your decision on taking or not."

With no one saying anything, I spoke, "I'll take it. I don't care how unruly he is, he'll learn to cooperate."

Unsurprised by my proclamation, the professor nodded, "In that case you may debate on who gets which of the three pokemon."

"I get the squirtle, and that's not gonna change!" Gary yelled.

"I'll take the charmander! That's one kick-ass pokemon right there!" the tanned kid shouted.

"I-I guess I'll take the bulbasaur..." the last kid said shyly.

Damn, decided that fast?

Within 2 minutes, it was just me and professor Oak, "Thank you for waiting, Ash. We'll get your pokemon next."

The professor hit a button on the pedestal, and a new platform came out with the last pokeball.

"Well, Ash my boy, here is your first pokemon. But be warned, I wasn't exaggerating when I said this pokemon was unruly. I can't even let it out of its pokeball without being shocked."

I smirked, "So it's an electric type pokemon?"

Professor Oak cursed under his breath, "Yes, it is. Now stop letting me reveal information! Go travel!"

A smile, on my face, I walked out of the lab. That smile only grew as I saw my mother standing near the porch, waiting for me.

She ran up to me, "Oh Ashyyyyy," she clutched my torso, "I'm gonna miss you so muuuuuuch!"

I accepted her embrace with a smile, "Me too mom, me too."

I left in silence, not wanting to ruin the moment.

o0O-O0o

I was in a large field outlined by trees. I'd been walking for about 30 minutes, all the time wondering about which pokemon I got. I had suspicions that it would be a pikachu due to its population in this area, but that was a guess at best. With all of the pokemon people sent the professor, it could really be anything.

"Well, now's the best time I'm gonna get," I muttered, pulling out the pokeball.

I threw the ball with all of my strength (which turned out to be a tad too much) and watched as the pokemon was released in a flash of white light. I was right, it was a pikachu. Within moments, a Thundershock was launched at me.

A rambunctious one, isn't he?

I stepped to the side, neatly avoiding the thundershock.

"That's quite a punch for a thundershock. Slow as hell though, don't you think? Avoiding an attack should not be that easy."

The pikachu glared at me.

I started pacing, "You're a haughty little guy, eh? Let me guess it's the whole 'I have something that makes me special, so I'm better than you' speal? Judging by that thundershock," I look toward the seared grass, "I'd say your electric sacs are larger than normal?"

"Pika!" he shouted, electricity dancing around his cheeks.

"As I thought. Well, to start us off, let me just say that you aren't special. You aren't. You may have large sacs, but what about the pikachu who's faster? Or the one who packs a mean tackle? What makes you better than them? Nothing. A completely average pikachu would beat you if it had a drive."

He looked at me skeptically.

"Let's say, hypothetically, there's a pikachu out there who trains himself into the ground each and every day, pushing his limits more and more. While this pikachu is becoming as strong as he can be, you're sunbathing, content that you're special. Then you two fight. You try to end it quickly by using your thundershocks, only to see the pikachu dodging them with ease and returning even stronger thundershocks. Now this pikachu is beating your ass to next week and you can't do anything about it. So what was the difference between you two?

"That pikachu knew he wasn't special, so he trained. Sure you had a boost in power from birth, but overtime, that pikachu overcame that boost. He made himself stronger than you, and beat you. The only way you can truly be special, is to first realize that you aren't."

The pikachu looked in thought. He'd always thought he could beat any other pikachu through his advantage; he'd never thought about his opponent taking that away.

"So, how about you let me help you become truly special."

He turned away defiantly.

I sighed, professor Oak wasn't kidding, "So lemme guess, even if you agree with my previous statement, you don't think a 'puny human' could help you?"

The pikachu gave a defiant nod.

"Okay, let's change topics then. So a pokemon is better than a human. Why? What makes them better? Well, the obvious answer is a pokemon has special abilities. That gives you the overall advantage. But it's the same thing with as before with the other pikachu. Although you have large sacs, another pikachu has better speed. Although pokemon have special abilities, humans have a stronger intellect. Before you get pissy, I'm not trying to belittle you. I'm not calling you dumb, I'm calling myself smarter. Have you ever wondered why a pokemon trainer gives the pokemon orders in a battle? Most just assume it's because the pokemon are focused on attacking. If this is the case, however, why don't battles between humans work the same way? We don't have people giving us orders, we just fight. We can think of and modify strategies much faster than pokemon. Some humans can't and some humans can exceptionally well. We have the brain, you have the brawn. This is why wild pokemon are generally weaker than trained pokemon."

The pikachu didn't seem very convinced by this.

"Fine, let me show you."

I kneeled down and picked up a small rock. I lightly tossed it in my hand before throwing it at a tree, causing an angry spearow to fly out and dive at me. When it was about to hit me with Peck, I twisted out of the way, grabbed its body, and guided it into the ground. Once it was through, I put my foot on it, keeping it from getting itself out.

"You see that? I used a simple tactic, redirecting his force. It's simple and effective. I, a puny human, beat a spearow. Sure, it's not the strongest pokemon in the bunch, but it's still a pokemon. I didn't just grapple the guy either, I used a tactic. Albeit, a common and simple tactic, but a tactic nonetheless. But now do you understand? A pokemon isn't better than a human. Now, I'm not trying to say humans are better than pokemon. You can bet that I'd get my ass kicked if I went up against a charizard, probably die too. What I'm trying to say is, we're not better than the other, we are equals. I don't want to be yours 'boss' or 'master', I want to be your friend. Can we come to an agreement? If you decide you don't like it, then fine. You have my permission to leave. Otherwise though, let's give it a shot. Whadduya say?"

The pikachu mulled it over for a minute, weighing the pros and cons, but ultimately jumped onto my shoulder. He didn't look exactly 'happy' about it, more neutral than anything, but was willing to try out a partnership. My hand hovered over his pokeball, but retracted when I felt him tense on my shoulder.

Without warning, a small spark of electricity struck my shoulder. My focus turned to Pikachu, who had sparks flying across his cheeks, and a scowl just below. I looked to where Pikachu was facing.

Shit...

Many spearow were spread across the trees, all with glares filled with contempt. I'm not stupid, I know no strategy or tactic is going to defeat the flock. I cradled Pikachu into my arms, and I ran. The speed boost my quickly increasing adrenaline gave me quite was surprising. I ran faster than I could remember running before. But even that wasn't fast enough to outpace the spearow, so I channeled aura into my legs to increase my speed even more. Without much practise with direct augmentation, I wasn't able to as much speed as I had hoped, but anything was helpful. I was hoping pikachu wouldn't notice, the small, translucent wisps of energy dripping from my legs, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

Eventually, we came across a waterfall. I've never had any doubts about my swimming abilities, but these were rapid torrents. Jumping in was practically asking for injury, but then again, facing the group of spearow was almost certain death. I dived in. The thought of death was very strong in my mind, but I'd be damned if I went out without a fight. I tried to flow through the currents as well as I could, letting them take of our speed.

When I was finally certain we'd escape the spearow, the river calmed down. Our speed was slowing down fast, and I was running out of oxygen. Poor pikachu probably already fainted. I cracked my eyes open, willing a thin sheet of aura to keep my eyes as protected as possible. It didn't work, but it made me feel better.

A fishing line.

It looks like Arceus doesn't want me to die just yet. My luck'll save me for now.

I grabbed onto the line and yanked it. The fisher felt the tug, and pulled me out. I even heard a shout of "It's a big one!" muffled by the water in my ears.

The fisher was a girl with short orange hair, but ultimately unimportant. My luck decided to strike again though; I saw a bike. Jumping onto it, I shouted a quick apology to the girl, and pedaled as hard as I could. I'd never ridden a bike before, but I figured out the balance in seconds.

A drop of water splashed against my face. The winds picked up, and that drop became several. In mere seconds, a storm broke out. I could hear the squawking of the spearow as they continued their hunt. No matter how fast I was going, when dirt turned to mud, I quickly lost my balance and fell off.

But I couldn't stop yet. I picked my sprint back up, and ran as fast as I could. The spearow were loud, dwarfed only by the thunder that boomed over us. Pikachu coughed out water, and wiggled free of my grasp, causing me to trip. I now knew the bitter taste of mud.

I shakily got onto my feet, and faced the spearow with a glare, "I don't care what you do to me. Feast on my flesh, tear me apart limb from limb for your amusement. But hear this, I will NOT let you take Pikachu. Whether I die here or not, I will protect my friends!"

I quickly start started calculating different strategies of attack whilst concentrating inside of me. This was deemed unnecessary, though (thank goodness), as it seemed pikachu found something in my short speech. He leapt onto my shoulder, leapt at the spearow, and fired a Thundershock. My luck really didn't want me to die, as a bolt of lightning struck pikachu, supercharging the bolt.

Of course he has Lightning Rod.

The attack fried the spearow. That was, hands down, the strongest Thundershock I'd ever seen. If anything, it looked more like a Thunder attack! The moment was short lived though, as I felt my adrenaline rush fade, leaving me as an unconscious body out on the ground. Well, I guess that's better than death, right?