"I'm going to become the greatest Pokemon Master!" Ash shouted as he stood on a small hill just on the outskirts of Pallet Town. This area was located on Route 1, which was the only connecting route between Pallet Town and Viridian City.
"Who is that guy?"
"Just ignore him, what a weirdo."
"Who does he think he is? As if anyone can become a Pokemon Master."
Ash was too excited to notice there were other people and trainers just a short distance away. He gave an embarrassed chuckle while scratching the back of his neck when he heard them. Perhaps they are right, not just anyone can become a Pokemon Master. In fact, Ash didn't even know how to become one! This was a term he occasionally heard whenever he watched Pokemon battles on TV; mostly as a rhetorical question, or when he read books and magazines about someone famous in the Pokemon world. But, given Ash's personality, he's not easily dissuaded and will charge steadfastly to achieve his dream.
**Flap flap**
Hearing a sound behind him, Ash turned to see a small bird with red-colored wings had just landed nearby. It was too busy pecking its beak into the ground to notice him. He pulled out his Pokedex, and pointed its camera towards the bird.
Spearow, the tiny bird Pokemon. A Normal/Flying type. Very protective of its territory, its reckless nature leads it to stand up to others–even large Pokemon–and sometimes humans.
Without much thinking, Ash unclipped a Poke Ball from his belt, "Bulbasaur, I choose you."
"Spearow is still unaware of us, let's catch it off guard with a tackle attack." With that, Bulbasaur charged haphazardly at the tiny bird. The green creature was about a yard out when Spearow finally noticed, and flapped its wings to avoid the incoming tackle. It then pecked Bulbasaur with its sharp beak a few times before flapping its wings to pull itself higher into the air.
Ash was dazed, "Huh, is it running away?" The Pokedex had said Spearow was fierce but in his excitement, he didn't think too much of it.
When the Spearow was high enough in the air, it stopped and suddenly dive bombed down towards Bulbasaur, attacking the Pokemon with its beak again. This time, combined with the diving movement, the strength of the super effective attack was much stronger. This attack looped into a U shape and Bulbasaur was continuously attacked with the diving peck for quite some time before Ash could react.
"Bulbasaur, use Vine Whip! Grab it and slam it into the ground!"
Ash thought with Spearow's small body, it would not be able to handle being slammed into the ground. This was a mistake. Stubbornly, the Spearow forced itself back up; its eyes blood red and glared at Ash. It then let out a fierce cry.
**Flap flap**
**Flap flap flap**
In a few short breaths, a flock of Spearow had appeared.
"Oh no!" Ash yelled as he recalled his equally shocked Bulbasaur into its Poke Ball and turned around and ran. Seeing how fierce one Spearow was, there was no way they could handle a flock of them.
**Flap flap flap**
**Flap flap**
**...**
"I think they're gone," Ash murmured from his hiding place in a bush. He cautiously crawled out, too afraid of being caught by potential stragglers.
"What are you doing Ashy?"
A male voice from behind caught him by surprise, and he quickly turned around while jumping back at the same time.
Gary and Leaf were staring at him with a confused look on their faces. Earlier in Pallet Town, Ash wanted to see his mother before heading off, so these two had gone ahead. Though they did promise to meet on the outskirts of Pallet.
"That's what happens when you're weak," Gary chided him after Ash explained what happened.
"Gary, why you! Let's have a battle right now - I'll show you who's weak!"
"Don't go crawling back home if you lose, Ashy."
Gary pulled out a Poke Ball, kissed it and threw it into the air. "Shellshocker, come out!" A bright flash of light and Gary's Squirtle appeared. Likewise, Ash called out his Bulbasaur.
Ash's Bulbasaur was a Grass type, so it had a type advantage over Shellshocker. With that in mind, Ash called out, "Vine Whip!"
"Tsk tsk." Gary shook his head and yelled out a command, "Crawl into your shell!" Safe inside its shell, Shellshocker was unaffected by the normally super effective Vine Whip.
"If that's not going to work, Bulbasaur, use your Tackle."
"Aqua Jet."
Shellshocker quickly came out of its shell; it then secreted enough water from its skin to cover its body before torpedoing itself towards Bulbasaur. Both Tackle and Aqua Jet collided with each other, but because it was hit by a priority move, the Grass Pokemon took the brunt of the attack and skidded back.
Seeing the Squirtle out of its shell, Ash thought this was their chance. "Hurry Bulbasaur, use your Vine Whip."
To Ash's dismay, Shellshocker grabbed onto the vines and the two Pokemon were locked in a tug-of-war struggle.
Snapping his fingers together to get his Pokemon's attention, Gary shouted, "Heave Ho!" and did a pulling motion at the same time. Shellshocker copied its trainer's movement and powerfully pulled Bulbasaur towards it before landing a point blank Tackle; knocking the Grass Pokemon out.
The next day.
The three of them had set up camp at a nearby water stream. Leaf had provided each of them with potions and berries to heal and feed their Pokemon last night. This morning, Gary took his Squirtle to the water stream so that it could quench its thirst, and speed up the reproduction of the water it had secreted from yesterday's battle. Despite being able to live on land, being a Water type, that meant it still needed water more often than other Pokemon.
With Gary away and Leaf still asleep, Ash sat on his sleeping bag, filled with thoughts. After his battle with Gary, a passerby trainer had challenged him to battle later that day. He won, but it was mostly due to Bulbasaur overpowering the Rattata they fought. The important thing however, was that Bulbasaur did not listen to him! It had used Tackle when he asked for Vine Whip, and vice versa.
Ash released Bulbasaur from its Poke Ball. The Pokemon shook its body to shake off the last trace of sleep then looked up at its trainer. Ash gave its head a pat and asked, "Why didn't you listen to me yesterday?"
Bulbasaur bumped Ash's hand off of its head, gave a couple of grunts and stomped its two front legs on the ground. With a fierce look in its eyes, it looked at Ash.
"Are you mad that we lost because of me?" Ash thought about it. Prior to the Rattata trainer, the battles against the wild Spearow and Gary were their first few battles, and they had lost both. Surely this can cause disappointment and distrust.
"I'll try to become a better trainer. The only way we'll get stronger, is if we do it together." He nodded at Bulbasaur and asked, "The others have a nickname, do you want one too? What about Saur?"
By this time, Leaf had already woken up and was smiling as she looked at the pair. She had her own problems as well. Charly, her Charmander, was quite skittish. This can become a problem if she didn't help him and he later evolved. The Charmander evolution line are known to be aggressive and strong; as a Charmeleon, he could cause significant unintentional harm. She shuddered thinking about what would happen once he became a Charizard.
"Finally awake, eh loser?" Gary was back.
"Hmph, stop calling him a loser!"
Gary shrugged at the angry Leaf. "You haven't battled me yet, maybe you're the loser," She teased.
"Is that a bet?"
"Make the bet then," she stood up and proclaimed.
Gary looked at her slender legs. When she realized what he was looking at, Leaf's face turned red. "Scoundrel, rotten boy! Where are you looking?!"
"It's your fault for wearing those shorts. As punishment, if you lose, you'll get ten spanks from this scoundrel." Gary was clearly annoyed at being called a scoundrel.
Leaf's face was still red as she replied, "Hmph! That'll never happen. If you lose, you'll be my servant for a week!"
Ash couldn't help but laugh at the two of them. They were all close friends after all, and despite Gary's domineering personality, he didn't mean any harm. There was also no need to worry about Leaf. If she didn't have a small hint of affection for the other boy, she would not tolerate that behavior.
The trio spent a few extra days on Route 1. It wasn't because it was a difficult trek to Viridian City; normally it would only take a day or two, but they wanted to train a bit and catch some Pokemon. Gary and Ash both caught a Pidgey each, while Leaf was able to catch three Spearow with their help. She had a plan for these Spearow and wouldn't tell them what it was until they reached Viridian.
"Say… What do you have planned for the three Spearow you caught?" Ash asked Leaf as they were eating breakfast at the Pokemon Center in Viridian City. His mouth was full of food as he spoke. After being on the road and eating only berries and trainer rations, the three of them were more than happy to gobble down well cooked hearty foods.
To accommodate traveling trainers, Pokemon Centers often have a small cafeteria that provides meals. Of course this was nothing compared to well known restaurants, but for the three of them, it was more than enough and much cheaper. Ash was eating Krabby claws; Leaf had a dish of poached Pidgey eggs; and Gary was enjoying Tyranitar sausages with Sitrus juice.
In order to prevent overconsumption, the Pokemon League of each region placed restrictions to protect the Pokemon; farmers had an annual max harvest quota, while hunters were only allowed to hunt Pokemon that were on a rampage and posed significant threat to people and cities. To further restrict hunters, they also had an annual max quota; and the hunted Pokemon's blood were extracted, frozen and used to synthetically reproduce meat using the DNA found inside. Only when the blood was exhausted were they allowed to hunt again. For seafood, fishermen were only allowed to extract Pokemon limbs that could easily grow back; for example, a Krabby's claws.
"I'm thinking of starting a business," Leaf answered as she poked the eggs in front of her. "In small towns like Pallet, I'm sure there are a lot of farmers who have to regularly worry about bug Pokemon eating their crops. It's a lot of work to drive them away, and pesticides or repels don't always work if the Pokemon is a Poison type or strong enough to withstand it. Spearow are naturally inclined to target bug Pokemon, so I just need to train them to not fly outside of a set perimeter."
"Once that's done, I can rent them out for a monthly fee." She paused to eat an egg before continuing, "It's much more interesting to learn the behaviors of Pokemon, and come up with a business model that incorporates using them to be profitable."
For Ash and Gary, nothing came close to the thrill they felt when battling with their Pokemon. Before they could rebuttal Leaf's claim, they were interrupted by a young girl, "So this is where you've been hiding." The girl; who looked a year older than them, had long pink hair that was about the same length as Leaf's, and she had on a loose white floral tank dress with a pair of black jeans. She wore a glove on her right hand, which she used to point at Ash, "I went to Pallet Town to find you, but your mom told me you had already left for Viridian City. Do you know how long I waited here? I was beginning to think something had happened to you - not that I care, I'd be rather happy actually."
Seeing his companions' confused look, Ash introduced her as Maylie, the niece of Giovanni; the Viridian City's gym leader, and his fiance. Wait, Giovanni's niece and fiance?! Gary and Leaf couldn't believe what they had just heard! The boy pinched his female companion who returned a slap to the back of his head. Yup, they weren't dreaming, the pain felt too real.
"Hmph! Who's your fiance?" Maylie crossed her arms and had an embarrassed look on her face. If there weren't other people around, perhaps she wouldn't have been as embarrassed. But when Giovanni's name was mentioned, all of the nearby trainers looked over at them.
"Do you think you are qualified?" Maylie pointed a finger at Ash. In her mind, he was not qualified. Her uncle was the great Giovanni, and their Sakaki family was considered an elite amongst the upper class. Not to mention, she was accepted as a student into the elite school, Pokemon Tech.
It's not uncommon for families to arrange marriages for their children. This was the case for these two families. Giovanni and Ash's father met when they were young, and after experiencing life and death together during the war, they became sworn brothers. Bounded together by oath, they decided to betrothe their children to each other. Giovanni failed to have a daughter, so instead, he chose his niece. The Sakaki family was not as well off eleven years ago as they are now; and perhaps, that sparked the change in how they perceived the Ketchum family, who now seem rather unimpressive in their eyes.
Before Ash could answer, Maylie demanded a battle. "Let's have a battle. I will show you that I am stronger, and don't need a loser to weigh me down."
The four of them made their way to the Viridian City gym. The building was quite imposing, perhaps a reflection of its owner. Giovanni Sakaki was known to have a domineering personality, and when it came to Pokemon battles, he was ruthless. He is often responsible for the majority of Pokemon in the Pokemon Center's emergency care room.
Standing on each end of the battlefield, Ash and Maylie faced each other. Ash unclipped Saur's Poke Ball from his belt, and released the Grass Pokemon. Maylie held a Great Ball in her hand before she threw it into the air, "Medusa, teach him a lesson!"
Silicobra, the sand snake Pokemon. A Ground type. When Silicobra digs a hole, it swallows sand and stores it in its neck pouch, so it can spray it out later.
The scales on this snake had different shades of brown. Its green eyes were quite piercing and it had a large sack-like structure attached to the back of its head. This must be the sand pouch, Ash thought as he put away his Pokedex. He had never seen this Pokemon before, but he knew it was not a Kanto native. With Giovanni's vast resources, he must've procured it for Maylie. Looking at the snake Pokemon, Ash didn't think it would have much power and since he had the type advantage, he ordered Saur to attack first. "Use Tackle Saur!"
Just before the attack could land, Medusa stuck its tongue out before it slithered to the right and avoided the attack completely! It then wrapped its body around the Bulbasaur, to prevent it from being able to escape.
"Gorgon's Eye!" Maylie commanded.
This was a combination attack! She had commanded her Silicobra to use Glare and Attract. With its green eyes, the snake gave a piercing look, and the trapped Bulbasaur felt its body become rigid and its limbs difficult to move. At the same time, Medusa also released an odorless chemical from its skin. This was a pheromone and it surrounded and seeped into its prey. Saur was now paralyzed and completely infatuated with Medusa; thus, it was unable to attack, even if it wanted to.
"Brutal Swing."
Thud! Saur was sent flying into the wall and was knocked unconscious before Ash could come up with a plan. He had lost again!
**Clap clap**
The group looked up at the balcony behind Maylie, and there stood an imposing man. This was Giovanni Sakaki - the Ground type specialist and gym leader of Viridian City.
"As you can see boy, you are outclassed."
Ash felt an incredible pressure as Giovanni looked at him. The aura of a gym leader was completely different from that of regular trainers. Even Gary, who was usually loud and confident around other trainers, also felt that he would have no chance against this man.
"If you are unwilling to give up this engagement, we can exchange Pokemon and money for your cooperation. The latter would be greatly beneficial to you," Giovanni chuckled as he gave Ash a condescending look.
Despite being filled with anger, Ash reluctantly recalled Saur. There was no way he could win, he had to get stronger!
"Canceling the engagement is no problem. But, you have insulted my family!"
He glared at Giovanni, before turning to Maylie.
"Seven months. In seven months, the Pokemon League conference will be held at the Indigo Plateau. We will settle our differences there!"
NOTES
Ash: Saur (Male Bulbasaur), Pidgey (Male)
Leaf: Charly (Male Charmander), Spearow (x3)
Gary: Shellshocker (Male Squirtle), Pidgey (Male)
Michael: Bing'er (Female Eevee)
Maylie: Medusa (Female Silicobra)