Intro:
Oak: Hello there! Welcome to the world of POKEMON! My name is OAK! People call me the POKEMON PROF! This world is inhabited by creatures called POKEMON! For some people, POKEMON are pets. Others use them for fights. Myself...I study POKEMON as a profession. First, what is your name?
Player enters "Ash"
Oak: Right! So your name is ASH! This is my grandson. He's been your rival since you were a baby. ...Erm, what is his name again?
Player enters "Gary"
Oak: That's right! I remember now! His name is GARY! ASH! Your very own POKEMON legend is about to unfold! A world of dreams and adventures with POKEMON awaits! Let's go!
In a bed room:
Meet Ash, a 11 year old boy full of confidence, imagination, and dreams that are too big for his village Pallet Town, right now he is watching the Pokémon League Match!
In a massive stadium, two creatures known as Pokémon are having a battle, directed by their Trainers to give it their all. One of the Pokémon, a Gengar, dodges a Horn Attack from its opponent, a Nidorino, and uses its Hypnosis attack on it, causing it to fall asleep. Nidorino's Trainer recalls it and sends out another Pokémon known as Onix to battle. The massive Rock Snake Pokémon emerges from its Poké Ball and prepares to take on Gengar, at which point it is revealed that the battle is being displayed on television.
"I can't wait for my Pokémon journey tomorrow, this is so exciting that I can't sleep at all!" Delia comes into his bedroom.
"Ash Ketchum! Why are you not in bed?"
"I am so excited for my Pokémon journey I can't sleep at all."
"Well if you can't sleep, at least watch something educational." Delia turns the channel and Professor Oak appears on the screen talking about the starters.
"Hello future Pokémon Trainers, tomorrow will be your big day. Let's talk about the Pokémon starters, to the left of the screen that's Bulbasaur, a grass type Pokémon, in the middle that's Squirtle a water type, to the right that's Charmander a fire type!" Professor Oak explains the starter Pokémon of the Kanto region and Ash finally goes to bed because of how boring it was, he already knows about the starters of Kanto.
Ash finally gets to sleep and dreams about the starters of Kanto, he snores and sleeps sloppily on his bed.
"Charmander, I choose you." He says in his sleep and his voltorb alarm decides to roll off his dresser.
"Squirtle, I choose you." He threw his alarm clock in his sleep without even noticing he even threw something that could have woke him up in the morning for his journey.
"Hmmm maybe I will decide on Bulbasaur..." Ash just keeps dreaming about getting his starter.
8 hours later at 11:00 Am, the Dodrio decided to scream to wake everyone up in Pallet Town (in the anime it kinda sounds like they were screaming,) Ash woke up yawning as he looked at his clock.
"Oh no! I am so late!" Ash opens his room door running down the stairs then runs out of the house running down the road to Professor Oak's Laboratory.
He saw Professor Oak flowering his flowers at the front lawn, "HEY PROFESSOR, I AM HERE TO GET MY FIRST POKÉMON!" Oak smiles and laughs as he sees Ash.
"Decided to go on your journey in your pajama's Ash?" Ash blushes in embarrassment.
"Sorry, I saw that I was a bit late but I am here now to get my first Pokémon!"
They decided to go upstairs as Ash decided to ask Professor Oak questions, "I've been thinking and dreaming all night to decide my partner and I choose Squirtle!" Oak sighs as he shakes his head.
"Sorry Ash but Squirtle is already taken by someone else."
"Then I choose Charmander!"
"Charmander is already taken, early bird gets the worm."
"What about Bulbasaur?" Ash says sadly as he looks gloomy.
"All of the starters are taken, but I do have a Pokémon for you though, but it might be a little hard to get along with and very powerful to be a starter. Since you were my student, I believe that you can take care of it."
Ash and Oak arrive at the main part of the laboratory, and Oak walks up to the table letting out a yellow mouse with two pokey black ears and brown stripes on its back, Ash stares at the mouse as he smiles and picks it up gently.
"His name is Pikachu Ash, he is an electric mouse and if you squeeze it too hard it will shock you."
"This Pikachu is already better than the rest of the starters, but it is kinda weird that I feel a special connection, like that I already knew him from a different world."
Pikachu did feel a bit of a connection to Ash already and they just met, like he said it did felt like they were friends for a long time in a different universe, this boy is special and he can feel like it, maybe he can give this boy a chance.
"Pikachu!" Pikachu just gives Ash a playful Thunderbolt attack and Ash grunts in pain.
Pikachu starts laughing but he nuzzles Ash into his chest, and Ash rubs Pikachu's head, "for now on Pikachu we are gonna be the bestest of friends and become the very best like no one ever was!" Pikachu likes the sound of that and climbs onto Ash's shoulders.
"Here's your pokédex and pokéballs," Ash grabs the pokédex and pokéballs.
Delia walks into the lab, "Ash you forgot to grab your clothes and backpack, you were running like a madman when you were running out the house!" Ash walks down the stairs and he thanks his mom.
Ash goes into the bathroom and change into a black shirt with a red vest on with golden outlines, blue jeans, blue shoes with the league symbol on the pair, with a golden backpack with the league symbol on the center, then he haves a red and white hat with the league symbol at the bottom left, then he haves on white wrist sweatbands.
"You look so handsome Ash!" Delia gives her son a tight hug.
"Mooooom you are embarrassing me!"
"Also don't forget to change your underwear!"
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!"
Pikachu was laughing throughout the whole conversation, he thinks this is a comedy goal. Mothers embarrassing their son's is just funny to him, he wants some ketchup and hopes his trainer got some for him.
"Okay Pikachu we gotta get going on our journey," Pikachu climbs back up to his trainer's shoulder walking out of the lab going towards route one.
Route 1:
"Beautiful day huh Pika?" Pikachu nods and Ash continues walking through route 1 until he spots a Pidgey, Ash looks at Pikachu and he nods and goes into the grass attacking Pidgey with a Quick Attack.
Pidgey uses Tackle on Pikachu head on with the Quick Attack, but Pikachu overpowers the Pidgey easily because Pikachu is a bit of a higher level.
"Pokéball go!!" Ash throws the pokéball at the Pidgey with good aim and the pokédex says "Nice throw!" The pokéball shakes and shakes until the Pidgey escapes the pokéball flying off, Ash and Pikachu are disappointed but decide to walk off into the forest part of route 1.
"It is so beautiful!" Ash watches the wild Pokémon playing in the wild having a good time with each other, "so Pikachu wanna stay in the forest for a while and train?" Pikachu nods and hops off his shoulder waiting for directions.
"Well since our first gym is a rock type, we need to work on Iron Tail so we can have an advantage over Brock." Pikachu agrees with Ash's logic, "Okay we attack that tree with your tail, it should give you an idea of what Iron Tail is!" Pikachu starts hitting his tail against a tree, it really isn't a problem for Pokachu since his tail is pretty strong.
"That's great Pikachu if you get tired take a break okay?" Ash looks up to the tree and sees a flock of Spearow, "Pikachu get away from the tree, there's a flock of Spearow in the tree!" It was too late and a flock of Spearow are pecking Pikachu until Ash picks up Pikachu then the Spearow are pecking Ash instead because Pikachu is covered in Ash's vest, now all of sudden there is a thunderstorm and it's pouring rain. Now Ash is wondering where the rain came from, it wasn't supposed to be a thunderstorm today.
"You damn Spearow let it go already! We are sorry!" Ash hears a loud screech and sees a huge Fearow flying in the sky with another large flock of Spearow.
"Well ain't today is my lucky day?" Ash falls down on a pebble hurting himself and Pikachu, "sorry Pikachu, please return to your pokéball now. You will be safe inside the ball I promise." Ash puts Pikachu's ball next to Pikachu as he stands up, turning his hat around, and spreading his arms.
"Spearow and Fearow, you know who I am?! My name is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town and I am gonna defeat everyone and each one of you! Come and get me you damn birds!" The Spearows and the Fearow are flying down straight towards Ash at very fast speeds, Pikachu
runs towards Ash then climbs his shoulders and jumps high straight towards the Spearows and Fearow with the biggest Thundershock that he can offer to them.
"PIKACHUUUUUU!!!" A huge explosion occurs with a whole bunch of electricity, with a badly injured Pikachu with the flock of Spearow and the Fearow knocked out, Ash opens his eyes and pets Pikachu's head.
"Thank you buddy, you really saved my ass back there." Pikachu licks Ash's cheek and he giggles.
There was a huge golden bird in the sky with a rainbow trailing behind it looking down at the boy, a rainbow feather fell down from the sky landing on Pikachu's head, they were both amazed at how beautiful the bird is and he put the rainbow feather inside his hat.
"Let's get you to the Pokémon Center, but before we head off let's capture that Fearow, we aren't leaving empty handed!" Ash grabs a pokéball and captures the Fearow easily since it is unconscious, then Ash runned towards the Pokémon Center in Viridian City which isn't far from here.
The outskirts of Viridian City:
"We are almost there, just hang on Pikachu!" Ash keeps running towards the city with a very tired Pikachu in his arms.
"HALT! ADDRESS YOURSELF YOUNG MAN?!" Jenny stops Ash in his tracks and he gets very nervous.
"My name is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, I just wanna take my Pikachu to a Pokémon Center, we got attacked by a flock Spearow and the flock leader decided to join in and attack me and my Pikachu!" Ash shows his pokédex to Officer Jenny then she takes it looking at information about Ash.
"Oh I see, well that flock of Spearow always causing trouble to new trainers. Sorry about me getting aggressive, there's a group of criminals stealing everyone's Pokémon, their name is Team Rocket please be careful sir. But if you want I can take you to the Pokémon Center so we can get there faster?" Jenny looked at the injured trainer and he nodded.
"Yes please, thank you so much officer!" Jenny takes out her motorcycle and it has a sidecar connected to it, Ash gets in the sidecar putting his seatbelt on.
"Hold on, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!"
"I feel like I am gonna regret this ride." Jenny drove off 50 MPH to the Pokémon Center.
"WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ash yells because of the wreckless driving and she is going beyond the speed limit.
Viridian City Pokémon Center:
A beautiful pink headed nurse is just enjoying her day. Today is a joyful day because there's barely any trainer's coming in today until…
BOOOOOOOM!
The trainer and officer coughing from the dust Jenny created because she thinks it was a good idea to destroy the door.
"Jenny! You're gonna have to pay for that door! Are you trying to get me fired from my job?!" Jenny just rubs behind her head having an anime sweat tear on her forehead.
"Sorry Joy, but this boy's Pikachu is in critical condition from a Spearow attack, I was in a hurry!" Ash goes up to the counter giving Nurse Joy his Pikachu and Fearows pokéball, Chansey comes out and takes Pikachu and Fearow to the back of the Pokémon Center.
Ash goes to the phone booth and decides to call his mom.
Ring…ring…ring…
"Pallet House, May I take your order?"
"Hey mom, just wanna tell ya that I am here in Viridian City."
Delia was surprised that Ash made it to Viridian City that fast, "it took your father four days to get to Viridian, wait why are you covered in bruises" she sees Ash's injuries.
Ash sighs, "well me and Pikachu decided on route 1 to train for our first gym battle and then we accidentally made a flock of Spearow and a Fearow mad.." he rubs behind his head
Delia just shakes her head, "Ash you gotta be more careful where you train at and be less reckless, but you did inherit from me I can't blame ya, when I was your age and when I traveled the world I was very reckless and got into trouble." Delia does have some other dark secrets and doesn't wanna tell her son what she had been doing when she was a teen, just hope Ash doesn't go down that path.
"I will be more careful, I promise mom!"
"Better be young man! I don't wanna lose my baby boy at such a young age!" Delia does her motherly pose.
"I will try my best but ya know there are gonna be dangerous events in this world, I mean this world is full of monsters that can shoot elemental attacks out of their body. And there's gonna be people who is gonna abuse that power for their gain, being a trainer isn't safe and can possibly kill someone"
"You got a point Ash, but still be careful! Use what Professor Oak taught you ok? Bye love ya, I gotta go back to work" Ash nods and hangs up the phone.
Ash calls the Professor.
Ring…ring…ring…
"Professor Oak speaking!" Oak is facing the wrong way.
"Hello there Professor..you are facing the wrong way.." Professor Oak embarrassingly turned the right way.
"I see you made it to Viridian, you are pretty fast. I think Gary is still on route 1 but I don't know since he hasn't called me yet."
"If I see him I will tell him to call you, but I don't know if I will ever see him, he is a pretty fast walker."
Professor decides to smirk, "Gary and I made a bet and he bet me 1 million pokédollars that you wouldn't catch a single Pokémon." Ash just sighs and shakes his head, Gary and Oak love to make crazy bets.
"Well you are in luck because I captured a Fearow on my way here."
Professor just hops off his chair and does a celebratory dance, he was pretty excited that he is gonna get 1 million pokédollars, "YAHOOOO! Thank you Ash, you made me a very rich man!" Professor falls down as he rubs his butt.
"Uhhh I guess it's no problem Professor, I am about to log off and get something to eat." Professor Oak nods and hangs up as he celebrates again when he hangs up.
Ash goes to the cafeteria and enjoys himself with some hamburgers with a side of fries with a cola. This burger reminds him of a fast food burger he had before when he was a kid that his mom took him to, not even close to his mom's homemade fresh cooked meals but enjoyable nonetheless.
"Can Ash Ketchum come up to the front desk?" Nurse Joy speaks through the speaker.
Ash goes to the front counter and Pikachu nuzzles up to Ash's face and he chuckles as grabs Fearows pokeball, he is just hoping the bird is not going to attack him and Pikachu when he releases her. Ash walks away from the counter making his way to the battlefield in the back of the Pokémon.
Ash takes a deep breath as he throws the pokéball into the air then Fearow comes out of the pokéball confused as hell.
"Hey Fearow, I am the one who captured ya, I know you are probably mad at me and I wanna say that I am sorry for causing you and your flock trouble. My name is Ash Ketchum and I wanna be a Pokémon Master. I can't do it alone though, I need Pokémon like you and Pikachu to accomplish the goal. I hope we can be friends Fearow!" Fearow was shocked to hear that, the boy seems very nice and didn't mean any harm, she is a bit hesitant but just nods, she will obey Ash but if he mistreats her she will fly off with no questions.
"Awesome! We need to train our butts off because we are going towards our first gym but you and Pikachu are weak against his Pokémon. They are rock but also ground types, so flying and electric moves won't work, we gotta work on a steel type move to counter his rock and ground typing. Pikachu continues working on Iron Tail, and Fearow pretends your wings are a sword and you wanna slice something in half with that sword."
Pikachu and Fearow nodded, Pikachu hit his tail on a huge boulder and Fearow just thought about wanting to slice that boulder in half and start flying towards the boulder but it didn't get sliced, it stings a little bit but not really, it took 4 hours just to get the steel type moves down.
Fearow and Pikachu finally got their moves down, Ash was exercising along with his Pokémon this whole time, he wanted to get strong along with his Pokémon, man what a work out. Ash was happy that his mom forced him to go to that Trainers School hosted by Professor Oak, if he didn't he would have been an idiot that came into a rock type gym with a Pikachu, Pidgeotto and a Butterfree. Ash returns Fearow and Pikachu hops onto his head.
"Ready to go buddy?"
"Pikachu!" Pikachu nodded as Ash ran towards Viridian Forest.
Inside Viridian Forest:
Ash and Pikachu look around the forest amazed at the beautiful forest, so many trees in this forest. Ash spots a Caterpie that is standing in his way.
"Okay Pikachu I want you to use your Quick Attack!" Pikachu dashes at the Caterpie at a very quick speed and it slams against the tree pretty hard then Ash throws a pokéball at the Caterpie, the ball is shaking for a long time, Ash and Pikachu waiting in nervousness until a ding, they hop in joy as Ash picks up the ball and takes Caterpie.
"Here Caterpie, I am gonna spray you with this potion, it might sting for a little bit but it will help you," Ash sprays Caterpie with a potion, the caterpillar wince in pain a little but it cries (not literally) in happiness running in circles around Ash and Pikachu.
"I see your feeling better, but welcome to the family!"
The sky is getting dark, Ash checks the time it's 4:00 PM. He puts the rocks in a circle then puts the little tree branches in the circle then puts the gasoline on the tree branches, he puts the leaves on the tree branch then uses a match to light the branches and leaves on fire. It's been 5 hours since he left his journey and is already making good progress, and he is already halfway there to Pewter City, he decides to send out Fearow as well for some training.
"Okay Fearow lets work on your Steel wing a bit more, Pikachu and Caterpie you spar with each other." The Pokémon nodded and did what their master told them to do.
Ash pulls out to look at his Pokémon movesets.
-- Pikachu moveset:
Thunderbolt
Quick Attack
Iron Tail
Volt Tackle
Ability: Lightning Rod
Ash was surprised that Pikachu already knows Volt Tackle since it is an egg move that is shared if you breed two Raichu's one with a light ball, more surprisingly that Pikachu got Lightning Rod which is a very good ability for a Pikachu.
-- Fearow moveset:
Pursuit
Steel Wing
Aerial Ace
Mirror Move
Ability: Keen Eye
Ash thinks they are not a bad moveset, but it can be a bit better and hope it does when we get to the 6th badge, if not there is a department store to go to in Celadon City to teach it better moves.
-- Caterpie moveset:
String Shot
Tackle
Ability: Shield Dust
Ash didn't care about the ability, but what did he expect? Caterpie is better when it's a Butterfree and nothing wrong thinking about facts. Now since he is done looking at their movesets and looks at his Pokémon working hard, Fearow joins in the sparring but against Pikachu since Pikachu can give him a challenge, Caterpie just watches them battling at awe he can't wait to be able to battle like that.
"Good job guys, how about we stop sparring and join in for some lunch?" They all cry in happiness as they all circle around the camp as Ash give them a specific type of Pokémon food, he was so glad that his mom taught him how to make Pokémon food for his journey, his mom did a lot of things that he was grateful for like making him study with Professor Oak so he can know what to do out in the wild.
The Pokémon feels energized and wanna go back to sparring, Ash lets them for 30 more minutes to make sure they are ready to face, he knew Caterpie isn't strong enough to beat a rock type just yet: but he can be a key player like using String Shot to type the rock types, but fighting them one on one no he can't take him on. Ash returns Fearow and Caterpie telling them that he was proud of them, and Pikachu climbs back on Ash's shoulder.
"Ready to go Pika?"
"Pikaaa!" The mouse nods his head.
Ash runs straight towards the exit of Viridian Forest as he is now in Pewter City finally.
Pewter City:
Ash and Pikachu are in awe, this is a beautiful city full of tall buildings. Everything seems very up-to-date, even the Pewter City Museum looks much different from the last time he and his mom visited Pewter City. He is thinking about visiting the Museum before challenging Brock but changes his mind and goes straight towards the gym.
"Are you excited for our first gym badge?" Pikachu coo's in response and nods his head, he is very excited and can't wait to see how much he improved, he does want to be the world's strongest Pikachu afterall.
Ash is in front of the Pewter City Gym, he takes a deep breath along with Pikachu and walks towards the door then the doors open automatically.
"Brock, my name is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town and I am here for a gym battle!" Pikachu yells his name along with Ash.
A tall tan teenage boy in a black, green, and orange hoodie, with gray pants and camo pants turns around and looks at the 11 year old boy.
"Well hello there! I see you have done some research about me, since you know what I am and here for a gym badge, let's get started!" Brock walks over to his side of the battlefield which is the right side, and Ash walks to the left side of the battlefield.
"This will be a 2 on 2 Pokémon battle, only the challenger is allowed to substitute, does that sound good to you Ash?"
"Sounds good to me!"
"Alright then! Geodude, I choose you!" Brock throws the ultra ball into the air and a Geodude comes out onto the battlefield.
"Pikachu you up first!" Pikachu runs out to the battlefield with impressive speeds; it even surprises Ash a bit.
"Wow your Pikachu seems a bit eagered, your Pokémon speed is pretty impressive especially for a beginner Pikachu. Enough talk! Geodude use Rollout!" Geodude turns into a ball and starts spinning at impressive speed towards Pikachu, but he is not as fast as Pikachu, he is still a bit slow.
"Quick Attack to meet it head on!" Pikachu runs very fast towards the rolling Geodude meeting the Rollout.
Pikachu and Geodude fighting for dominance, this is very intense but Pikachu won the first round but Brock keeps calling for a Rollout and knocks over Pikachu, but Pikachu gets in with no problems.
"That's the spirit, Pikachu! Use Iron Tail, let's go!" Pikachu's tail glows and hits the rolling Geodude right on the face when he gets close to Pikachu.
"Geodude!" Geodude took a lot of damage from the close range Iron Tail, but he nodded towards Brock.
"We are still in this Ash! Use Gyro Ball!" Geodude spins around Pikachu, Pikachu is getting a bit dizzy.
"Pikachu slam your tail against the battlefield to create a smoke screen!" Pikachu does just that and the battle is a cloud of dust created by Pikachu tail, and Geodude stops spinning looking for Pikachu.
"Keep your guard up Geodude he can be anywhere," Geodude is looking around the field, but the field is still in a cloud of dust, Pikachu shows up out of nowhere slamming an Iron Tail against Geodudes back as Pikachu returned back to Ash's side of the field.
Geodude tries to get up and it faints "good job Geodude you deserve a good rest I couldn't be anymore proud." Brock returns Geodude back into the Ultra Ball.
"I am very impressed, even though you have the disadvantage in this gym, you taught your Pikachu a steel type move to beat my gym, you are a determined and very strategic trainer, now let me show you my partner Pokémon Onix!" Brock throws the Ultra Ball into the air letting out the rock snake Onix.
"Pikachu return buddy, we want him to have some fun in this battle don't we Pika?" Pikachu runs back to Ash and sits down next to him, he pets Pikachu behind the ears for his efforts in this battle, he turns his hat backwards and throws the pokéball "Fearow I choose you!" A huge bird comes out the pokéball screeching in the air.
"Huh, interesting! Now you brought a flying type into the battle? You are full of surprises Ash! You make the first move."
"Alright Fearow, start off with Pursuit!" Fearows feet glows purple flying fast at Onix hitting him on the face, which Onix did take some damage but easily stands up.
"Now since he is close, use your Bind attack Onix!" The rock snake roars loudly as he grabs Fearow with his tail squeezing the bird tightly. Ash is in a bit of a pickle, now Ash is thinking of a plan for Fearow to escape.
"Hey Fearow, use your Steel Wing mixed up with Aerial Ace!" Fearow does just that, hurting Onix in the process because of the super effective attack, now she is free from Onix attack.
"Impressive, nice strategy using the Aerial Ace to boost up the Steel Wing so Fearow can escape Fearows grip! But it is not over yet, Onix use your Rock Throw!" Onix roars as point rocks circling the rock snake and the rocks are thrown at Fearow.
"Fly towards Onix using your Steel Wing!" Fearow flying towards Onix slicing the rocks on his way, then she directly hit Onix right in the stomach.
Fearow is on Brock's side of the field while Onix is in the middle of the field, it is a standoff seeing which Pokémon will faint. Fortunately for Ash that Onix fell down onto the ground and fainted, Ash was so happy that he won his first gym badge, he and Pikachu rushed the Fearow and Pikachu hugged Fearow and she squawks in happiness.
"Great job Fearow, you and Pikachu did great in this battle. I am so proud of both of you, return Fearow you deserve a good rest!" He returns Fearow into his pokéball, while Brock returns Onix in his ultra ball praising his Pokémon for its efforts.
"Good job Ash, you totally kicked my ass while you had 2 Pokémon remaining and you were at a disadvantage, I can't be any more prouder than to give you this Boulder Badge, congratulations!" Brock opens his hand and it reveals the Boulder Badge and Ash takes it.
"Alright! I got the Boulder Badge!" Ash jumps in the air in joy with the badge in his hand with Pikachu with his two fingers up.
"Pi Pikachu!"
Fearow pops out of the pokéball squawking in joy and Ash chuckles as he returns Fearow.
"I really do wanna travel around the world, but sadly I can't. My real dream is to become a Pokémon Doctor not a gym leader, but I have no choice in the matter and I also gotta take care of my brothers and sisters. But hey if ya want we can still be friends and tell me about your adventures, wanna exchange numbers?"
Ash thinks about it for a moment and gives Brock his phone number, he just got a long time friend even though he won't be traveling with him but we can still contact each other through the phone, plus it won't be a bad idea to have gym leaders as friends as they might give him advice.
"One more thing, I want to give you a TM/Technical Machine, it is called Rock Tomb! You can teach it to a future rock type Pokémon, good luck on journey and call me if you need any advice or you just wanna chat!"
Ash nods and gives Brock a handshake as he grabs the TM as he did so, he walks out of the gym walking towards the Pokémon Center.
I deleted my last story because I didn't have anything new to add to it and lost my spark.
