Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town had just started his journey towards being a Pokémon master in a rather unglamorous way. Waking up late, he was the last one to arrive at Professor Oak's lab, showing up still in his pajamas, his rival Gary already leaving with his Pokémon.
Thankfully for Ash, Professor Oak still had one Pokémon left, a rebellious pikachu that hated being confined to its ball. After dragging the disagreeable Pokémon along, failing to catch a pidgey, a small bird Pokémon, Ash angered a spearow, a small bird Pokémon with a bad temper, who proceeded to call its flock to help it in hurting those that angered it.
Ash and his pikachu were chased a long distance, meeting a young girl they stole her bicycle to get more distance from the angry flock, until Ash's bravery in defending Pikachu inspired the electric mouse to use the brewing thunderstorm to blast away the birds with a mighty thundershock.
Injured, the pair woke up some time later and saw a golden bird flying across the clearing skies. Seeing his first, and only, Pokémon laying there injured, Ash scoops up his Pikachu and continues on towards Viridian City's Pokémon center as fast as possible.
In his rush, a suspicious police officer, Officer Jenny, stops the boy to confirm he isn't a Pokémon thief before recklessly driving him into the Pokémon Center and getting the doctor on duty, Nurse Joy, to help the injured Pikachu.
As the officer is getting onto her motorcycle she had parked at the front desk, the doors slide open and a mysterious figure steps inside. A short figure in black robes and a wide brimmed hat who has their face hidden behind a rough, wooden mask.
Officer Jenny steps back off her motorcycle and approaches the figure, Ash watching while his mind is focused on his Pikachu getting treatment in the back of the center.
"And who might you be?" Officer Jenny asks.
"Tanya. Pokémon Trainer registered to Pallet Town," the short figure said as she pulled out a Pokédex to confirm the information. Ash looked at the figure, trying to remember who she could be. He didn't remember anyone that looked like her, and she already knew the Pokédex could be used as ID.
"The fifth one from Pallet Town today," Officer Jenny said with a shake of her head. "There sure are a lot of you."
"Oh?" Tanya said, and Ash could sense the raised eyebrow. "I must have missed one. I fought three of the other trainers on my way here as they passed me."
"Probably that trainer over there," Jenny said, pointing towards Ash. "Though his Pikachu is in pretty rough shape."
Ash gave a weak wave when Tanya looked towards him before she looked at the empty desk. "I take it that is also why the desk is unmanned," she asked.
Jenny nodded. "Nurse Joy is in the back helping the poor thing."
Tanya sighed. "Nothing for it then, I'll just have to wait then."
"Be careful, there are Pokémon thieves currently on the loose," Officer Jenny warned before getting back on her motorcycle.
"I'm sure you will get them soon enough," Tanya said, heading towards a bench to wait on, Ash taking a seat next to her.
Tanya pulled out her Pokédex and began messing around with it. Ash looked towards the closed door to the back of the center with uncertainty.
"So, you're from Pallet Town too?" Ash asked, wanting to fill the silence with anything other than his own worries.
"Registered. I'm from the middle of nowhere in the mountains," Tanya answered. "Pallet Town and Professor Oak there seemed as good as any to start my journey with."
"Oh. That explains why I don't recognize you."
"Yeah, I only arrived there a few days ago."
Tanya snapped her Dex shut and turned towards Ash, facing him fully, the wooden mask hiding her expression entirely.
"Do you want to talk about what is wrong with your Pikachu, or would you prefer small talk about anything else?" She asked. Ash could feel her critical gaze on him.
Ash sighed and began explaining what happened. How Pikachu was being difficult and that Ash had tried catching a Pokémon, but instead just angered a bunch of spearows.
Tanya nodded along as Ash spilled everything. After he was done, looking down and feeling awful, he felt a hand on his shoulder. "I am not going to say the situation wasn't your fault, but you are young and still have a lot to learn. Your heart in the end was in the right place to protect Pikachu and bring him here. Learn from your mistakes, try not to repeat them."
Ash rubbed his eyes and nodded. "You're right. Thank you."
Before Tanya could respond, the young girl Ash had met earlier came storming into the Center carrying a burnt, and damaged bike. She was in a yellow top and jean shorts held up by suspenders, had red hair, and an angry expression as she marched over to where Ash and Tanya sat.
"I've got you now!" The girl angrily growled out. "I knew I'd find you here!"
Ash gulped.
"We are in a medical center, please lower your voice," Tanya said calmly.
"And what are you going to do about it?" The girl ask, turning her ire towards Tanya for a moment.
"I could call the police. That Officer Jenny seemed like a reasonable young lady that would take someone disturbing the peace seriously, especially the peace at a medical center."
The girl deflated and her bike lowered to the ground. "Oh."
"Oh indeed. Now Ash here isn't going anywhere for a while, so why don't we have a nice calm discussion instead and you can tell me what he did to upset you."
"This twerp stole my bike and destroyed it trying to save his pokemon," the girl said.
"I'm sorry. I'll make it up for what I did to your bike," Ash said.
"There, he has accepted responsibility," Tanya said, interrupting Ash from explaining he couldn't do anything currently. "If you have some paper and a pen, we can start working out some sort of agreement where he repays you appropriately."
"I don't want to wait, I want a new bike right now," the girl said.
"Considering that Ash is waiting for his Pikachu to heal, you will just have to wait," Tanya said, stretching her arms over her head. "As a life is more important than some bike."
The girl calmed down at that. "Is it very serious?"
"I think so," Ash said. "And there is nothing I can do to help now."
"You being here when Pikachu comes out will do a lot more than you may think," Tanya said. "But while we wait, let's work on that agreement."
The three of them settled down, names being exchanged with Tanya and Ash learning the girl was Misty, and they got to work hammering out an agreement on how Ash would be able to repay or replace Misty's bike. A conversation that left neither party happy, but would work for the time being.
Soon enough the sign above the door to the back of the center turned off with a chime and Nurse Joy along with a pair of egg shaped Chansey came out with Pikachu asleep on a gurney with a strange device on his head.
Ash and Misty rushed over to check on Pikachu.
The news was good. Pikachu was recovering and just needed some rest.
"Your attention please!" Officer Jenny's voice called out over a city wide alert system. "Our Viridian City radar centers have detected an aircraft belonging to a gang of Pokémon thieves. If you have a Pokémon in your possession, exercise extreme caution!"
Shortly afterwards a pair of Pokéballs crashed through the skylight of the Center, releasing a pair of Pokémon, one which quickly filled the large space of the entrance area of the center with smoke.
"Yini! Ginger! Go!" Tanya called out in a commanding tone. "Ash, Misty, Joy, get in the back!"
"What? But-" Ash started, confused.
"Now!" Tanya snapped startling the group into the back.
While scrambling quickly, Misty and Ash chose to watch from the door to the back.
"My, what an- ooph," a male voice started speaking before going cut off with a meaty thunk.
A red beam shot through the smoke, hitting a snake Pokémon, a trail of energy going back to a tired, injured plant Pokémon that was starting to look better as the energy flowed into it.
The smoke cleared up as a twister spiraled forth, missing the smoking ball floating around the room.
"James!" A woman with long red hair cried out in surprise before the much smaller figure of Tanya moved to kick her legs out from under her, grabbing that long hair and pulling the woman to the ground, head making contact hard against the floor.
It was a full on battle royale going on. A cat Pokémon cried out and began furiously scratching at Tanya.
As this went on, Ash pulled out his Pokédex to figure out what all the Pokémon were.
His Dex identified the floating ball as Koffing, a poison gas Pokémon, the snake was an Ekans, and the cat was a Meowth. At least that was the ones Tanya and her team were fighting. Tanya's team was an Oddish and Dratini, but the Pokédex tried to identify Tanya as an unidentified Pokémon for some reason.
"You brat!" The woman yelled as she tried getting up, her face a mask of rage. "You'll pay for that!"
Tanya did not respond, just defending against the attack from the Meowth until she ducked to the side, her fist coming in hot to punch the cat Pokémon in its side.
Her first wasn't even metaphorically hot, Ash saw it was covered in flames as she struck. The flames lit Meowth's fur on fire as it stumbled back.
"Yeowch! Hothothot!" Meowth said, patting its fur.
"Meowth! Stop, drop, and roll!" the purple haired man, James, cried out.
"Right!" Meowth quickly started rolling on the ground.
"A talking Pokémon?" Misty said in surprise.
Ekans managed to get the Oddish wrapped in its coils, squeezing before going in for a string bite.
"Dish!" the Oddish cried out before fainting.
Tanya backed up, giving room to the thieves as she pulled out a ball and returned her Oddish to its ball. As that was happening, the Dratini struck the Koffing with its tail, which was glowing with a bright purple energy.
Koffing flew through the air, landing in James's arms. "Koff~."
"Koffing!" James yelled, returning the poisonous ball to its Pokéball.
"This twerp is a pain," Meowth said, gritting his teeth.
"Dra!" the Dratini said, using its tail to send a twister towards the other serpent Pokémon.
Tanya rushed in. Meowth readied his claws, but Tanya sidestepped the cat, striking at the woman's thigh, bringing her to her knees before an uppercut palm strike knocked her out cold.
"Jessie!" James cried out before having his legs swept out from under him. His head hitting the ground hard enough to join his partner in unconsciousness.
Tanya turned towards Meowth, in a fighting position. A quick glance towards Ekans showed the snake was passed out in the Dratini's grip, Dratini letting go and beginning to move towards the cat.
"I surrender!" Meowth said, raising his hands.
"Good. Get on the ground," Tanya said, the first words she said since the battle started. Looking back, she saw Ash and Misty peeking through the doorway. "Have the police been called?"
"R-right!" Misty said, quickly moving towards the phones to make a call.
"How did you do all that?" Ash asked, eyes wide in shock.
"I told you I came from the mountains. You need to be able to protect yourself in the wilderness." Tanya turned back towards Meowth. "Stop!"
Meowth had been trying to slip away, but stopped at Tanya's barked order.
It was not long before the Center was crowded by cops arresting the thieves and taking statements over what occurred. Officer Jenny gave Tanya a thorough talking to about getting personally involved in fighting the thieves that Tanya seemingly dismissed, unconcerned as anyone willing to attack a medical facility was not someone to take lightly, according to Tanya's words.
Ash was questioned, but allowed to leave quickly to stay by his Pikachu's side, Misty being given a more thorough questioning as she did not have any Pokémon currently injured.
As for the thieves…
—-
It took a bit of time for them to wake up, finding themselves locked up, but they were able to quickly plan and execute an escape from the cell they were being held in.
"Did you see that Pokémon that brat had?" Meowth asked as they dug their way out.
"Yeah, a dratini. Very rare Pokémon," James said.
"Would probably catch a good price if we could steal it," Jessie agreed.
"Though there was something funny about that brat," Meowth said.
"Besides hitting like a truck and not saying anything during the fight?" James asked
"Yeah," Meowth said. "Her first ignited when she went to attack me, almost like she was using a fire type move.
The trio paused at that and looked at each other.
"You aren't suggesting?" Jessie asked.
"We can't know till we check…"
"But that would be…"
Jessie and James looked at Meowth, almost as though looking at him for the first time in a while.
"'Not impossible.'" The three agreed.
