Pallet Town.
Pallet Town a beautiful place, it is a town or well the more appropriate term would be a relatively small town with about 800 people that is widely known throughout the Kanto region, for being the home of Professor Samuel Oak, a famous Pokémon researcher and Ex-champion who is considered an eminence in the study of the fantastic and surreal known as Pokémon, but we do not come to talk about him, today we will see the beginning of a legend, the day the greatest of the trainers took his first step.
Today we can find a little 5 year old boy with jet hair walking through the woods of the town with no fixed direction "Stupid Gary, stupid Leaf, stupid people" the little boy muttered to himself as he walked without seeing where he was going.
This little boy was Ash Ketchum, son of Delia Ketchum and an unknown man, the bastard as the young boy referred to himself every time he thought of his father had impregnated his mother and left, because of this the more conservative villagers had branded the family of two as unfit for their society shunning them like the plague.
This attitude had spread to the children of Pallet causing Ash to suffer a case of mild ostracism from an early age, his only true friends (At least in his opinion) had been Gary Oak grandson of Professor Oak and Leaf Vermillion daughter of one of the famous trainers who had started his journey to collect data on the pokedex so many years ago. Naturally the fame of being relatives of those legends had filled the children with a load of expectations on their shoulders incredible for their age, which made them incredibly competitive and a bit arrogant, as a consequence both began to distance themselves from the young jet because of the preconceptions in which they had been instilled and their differences of opinion.
Fortunately the attitude of the adults had not endeared him to Professor Oak who had no problem with Ash's family in fact his mother was a research assistant to the professor, which had caused Delia's son to see the professor as a close authority figure and Ash actually liked the professor although he was cautious to a certain extent with the man, Still he young man helped out in the lab whenever the opportunity arose, all for the chance to learn as much as possible about Pokémon he had always loved these creatures and the chance to spend time around them in a safe environment was something he couldn't afford to pass up, everything was going well until Delia fell ill a year ago, this had come as a bucket of cold water to both mother and son, although the field of medicine had advanced to incredible levels, thanks to the presence of Pokémon especially Pokémon like Chansey, Audino and others even the biggest hospitals could not find the reason for the illness so all the boy could do was watch as his mother grew weaker day after day, not even the help of the professor had been able to do anything to cure the condition that damaged Mrs. Ketchum's body, the disease was simply untreatable, so there was only one possible conclusion the young woman's days were numbered.
Delia tried everything she could to keep her son from noticing while discreetly preparing him for when she was gone, teaching him everything she could about chores and making sure to make him as independent as possible, the professor assured her that he would take care of Ash and support him in achieving his dreams every step of the way, this had allowed Delia to focus on spending as much time as she could with her son while making sure to give him tips on things she experienced herself in her travels as a final gift that would help her son in his future journeys that she sadly knew she would not be able to observe as her child made his way in the world, which was probably her only regret.
The blond for his part knew that his mother didn't have much left, it was painfully obvious no matter how much she tried to hide it, but his mother wanted him to be happy and enjoy the little time they had left, how could he deny the desire of the person who loved him the most, he simply couldn't, so he pretended as best he could around him while sadness consumed him inside and helplessness made a hole in his stomach.
While the young man was in his thoughts mentally cursing everything, wallowing in his misery and self-pity he felt something hit his foot causing him to fall to the ground as he was not prepared to suffer such an imbalance.
He looked up only to see a small obviously injured Pokémon that he had only seen in books, how could he not, its rarity was almost incomparable, the possibility of seeing this little one in front of him in this place was possibly comparable to seeing a legendary, this little one was from the evolutionary line of one of the best known and most powerful semi legends in the world, if in some cultures the legendaries were Gods the Pokémon in the category of semi legends were easily catalogued as demigods.
In front of Ash was a Gible evolving into a semi-legendary Garchomp native to Sinnoh.
What were they doing here of all places?
Had it escaped from the professor's lab?
No, as far as he knew the professor's Alakazam would never let a Pokémon like this escape his guard.
Putting aside his thoughts and recovering from his daze the young man approached the Pokémon "Are you okay?" he asked softly as he took a few steps forward, this earned him a growl from the Pokémon that judging by its size and features was around a few months old, or well that was what he had read in some basic books on Pokémon breeding, but he was only 5 years old, I could be wrong.
Still, if he wasn't at this age, this type of Pokémon were still protected by their parents and even if he was a little older he wouldn't stray that far from his colony so unless there was a Garchomp colony in this place that no one warned him of the situation this gave Ash a bitter conclusion.
"Where are your parents?" he asked the question in a whisper, but it was just enough for the little land shark to hear.
The silence that filled the clearing was answer enough, possibly this little guy had managed to escape whatever had happened while his parents distracted the enemies probably finishing them off or sacrificing themselves in the process, the young man thought that possibly the culprits in all of this were the hunters or Team Rocket who was famous in Kanto and Johto for illegal Pokémon trading, extortion, robbery, murder and a list Ash preferred not to remember for his own mental health.
Taking a step closer to try to help the hatchling in front of him only caused it to attack him, biting him on the arm and drawing blood in the process.
He grunted, but ignored the pain as he tried to remember his mother's and the professor's advices for these situations.
In a way they were alike or soon would be.
Both without parents, without friends, without anyone to trust and in a dangerous environment, with people who could take advantage of them in one way or another, while they were powerless to do anything to prevent it.
He laughed grimly for a moment ignoring their situation.
He really was a cynic for a 5-year-old.
Well they say the unlucky ones grow up much faster than normal children He took a sigh and steeling himself, looked at the little boy in front of him.
"It's all right, I promise I'll protect you, I won't let anyone hurt them" Ignoring the pain he cooed to little Gible like his mother did when he was having bad days, this had the desired effect when he stopped biting him and started licking the wounds he had given him.
It hurt more than it helped, because of how rough his tongue was, but he wasn't going to tell her when he looked so sorry for attacking him.
It was lucky he was still so young or he might have lost his arm and would have to go for a new one made of Ditto cell cells.
He didn't know what the researcher who created that Pokémon was trying to do, but it changed the field of medicine for both Pokémon and humans in ways never seen before.
He put his musings aside and without wasting any time he carried them both and ran as fast as his young body could in the direction of his home being very careful not to let anyone see him, even he could see how this could blow up in his face if anyone saw him with a wounded Gible of all things running down the street.
Unbeknownst to him this small interaction would change the course of the world's destiny forever, setting young Ash on the path to the greatest of legends.
On the path to becoming a master.
N/A: Well here is the first chapter of this story, I hope I can go far with it.
As I showed Ash is much more mature and cynical than a boy his age normally is and believe me when I tell you I will try to keep this kind of attitude but without trying to make him become a Gary Stu, I just can't see myself writing him as a normal 10 year old boy being immature and having a hero complex like in other great stories I love, I would say my Ash is a little more like Paul who is looking for benefit and won't get into a life or death situation simply because of his sense of justice or something.