Kanto: Pallet Town, Day…
In the small town of Pallet, within the region of Kanto, Pidgey's were chirping while the summer breeze blew. Today, Professor Oak was hosting his yearly pokemon summer camp. While there were finite spots, anyone from the other regions could attend.
This camp was for any child, ages 4-7. A group of adults and children were gathered before the Professor, who stood on a wooden stage with a male assistant. He has grey hair that sways to one side, a red shirt under his lab coat, and a black belt which held up a pair of brown trousers.
"Greetings." Oak declared. "This is our forty-fifth year running a summer camp, and we hope it will be as successful as the previous years. While you're here, you will spend time interacting with pokemon."
That made the kids excited as they cheered. "Most of all, you are here to have fun." Oak gave a signal for the assistant to start releasing pokemon. "Parents, feel free to stick around and make any queries you may have."
Oak then stepped down, and a couple of the parents approached him while others decided to wait. Some just began to mingle while others decided to take their leave. The children gathered, in their own groups, around the assistant. One by one, the assistant started releasing pokemon.
There were more than enough for one pokemon per kid, but as the children gathered, Serena Yvonne stayed back since she was terrified of pokemon. Said girl was a Kalos native with long, honey blond hair covered by a summer hat.
She also had sapphire blue eyes and wore a light pink summer dress. She had taken to standing by a tree far away from the action. Ash Ketchum, A boy with messy raven-black hair and hazel brown eyes, noticed her standing by herself.
He wore a red and yellow sleeveless shirt, dark blue denim shorts, and dark green shoes with white socks. Ash had received a Growlithe, but before rushing off to play with him, he decided to approach her. This prompted Growlithe to follow suit.
"Hey there!" Ash greeted, causing the girl to jump as her back had been to him. "I'm Ash, what's your name?"
Serena looked from him to the Growlithe with a rather timid expression. This Ash seemed nice; however, the pokemon and her usual shyness weren't helping in any regard. Still, her mother had taught her to be polite.
"I-I'm Serena." Serena stated with hesitation. "It's n-nice to meet you."
Ash frowned slightly at the hesitation, but that quickly dissipated. "So, why don't you have a pokemon Serena?" He crouched and patted Growlithe. "Professor Oak is awesome. He'd never let children around pokemon who aren't well trained."
Growlithe happily barked. Serena looked down at the puppy pokemon and had to admit he was cute. Still, she ended up backing away. Growlithe took this as an invite to chase her and ended up jumping at the shy girl.
Serena hadn't been trying to initiate a chase, so she was knocked down. The puppy licked her with affection causing Ash to chuckle, but Serena was terrified. She quickly pulled herself up and bolted into a nearby forest, a couple of tears escaping her eyes as Growlithe followed.
"Serena, Growlithe!" Ash exclaimed, chasing after them.
With Oak
After a few of the adults concluded their talk with Professor Oak, a woman approached him. She has medium length brown hair with a yellow hair clip, a short sleeve dark blue t-shirt, and a pale green jumpsuit tied around her waist.
"Hello Professor." The women stated, getting his attention. "My name is Grace, Grace Yvonne."
She offered her hand and Oak happily shook it. "Ah yes, Yvonne." Oak replied with a friendly smile. "If I'm not mistaken, your daughter is the only child we have from Kalos this year." He nodded. "I am pleased you signed up for my camp."
"That's right." Grace stated. "I thought it was the perfect chance for my daughter to try making some friends as she's quite the shy child."
"I see." Oak nodded. "Well, she should have no trouble making friends as we have quite a few good eggs." He began pointing out children. "There's Gary, he's my grandson, and Ash Ketchum…"
Delia Ketchum, a slender woman with fair skin, brown eyes, and red hair in a pony tail, joined the two. She wore a pink short-sleeved jacket with a yellow undershirt, a purple skirt, and light green shoes.
"Speaking of Ash, professor I haven't been able to see him." Delia voiced, worriedly.
"I'll get my assistants searching for the two right away." Oak assured. "Delia, Ash knows the area around Pallet Town well, and Ms. Yvonne, I'm sure Serena is…"
"Tauros!"
"Watch out!"
Upon hearing the pokemon cry and following exclamation, the trio looked to see a Taurus had been released. One of the assistants had just run in and picked up one of the children, getting them out of the way as the normal type charged.
Given its location had been near the stockpile of pokemon for the camp, it must have come from there. Said Tauros was by no means a newborn, but he was young enough to the point of not being properly trained to be around this many people.
"Even then, I wouldn't risk bringing a Tauros to the camp…" Oak thought.
The only pokemon Oak secured should have been first stage pokemon, thoroughly trained by himself or known breeders. Right now, such things were not to be pondered. As his assistants moved to protect the children and parents, Oak did the same with Grace and Delia.
"Stay behind me, you two." Oak declared before pulling out a pokeball and throwing it. "I choose you, Nidoking!"
A Nidoking, decades old at this point, appeared. Even though Grace raced Rhyhorn for a living, she was not about to chance that experience in this situation. As such, she worked with Delia to corral nearby children behind the professor.
The Forest
Serena stopped running from the incident with the Growlithe, but she was now terrified because she was lost in a strange forest. "I knew I shouldn't have come to camp." Brush nearby began to rustle, causing Serena to trip and hurt her knee. "Mommy!"
Growlithe lept over her, but as he did not see her, the fire type just took off. The young girl was still startled and cried before the brush started moving again. Serena couldn't escape in her current state, so she held her breath. Then, a familiar head of messy, black hair emerged.
"Growlithe! Ser…" Ash stopped as he spotted Serena crying on the ground. "Hey, what's up? Why are you crying?"
"I hurt my knee!" Serena replied in sobs.
"No need to worry." Ash replied as he came over while pulling out a handkerchief and tying it around her injury. "This should help."
Serena soon felt another rush of pain. "It still hurts."
"That's ok. Watch this." Ash waved his hands over her injury. "Pain, pain, go away!"
Serena couldn't help but giggle. There was still pain, but it was much easier to ignore when someone as silly as Ash was around. She also found it sweet that this boy was going the extra mile for her.
"How's your leg now?" Ash asked while standing up. "Can you stand?"
Serena tried to push herself up, but that only caused her more pain. "N-no. It hurts too much."
"Hey, don't give up until it's over!" Ash replied while holding out his hand.
Serena saw the gesture, and slowly put her hand out about a quarter of the way. Ash noticed her hesitation, so he met her the rest of the way before helping the girl up. He pulled a little too hard causing Serena to fall onto him like it was a hug.
"See, you're up." Ash flashed her a grin. "Now, let's get back to camp."
As Ash led her back to town, Serena could only stare at this boy in stunned amazement.
Pallet Town: Later…
Pallet Town was not too big nor truly known for its surplus of capable trainers on any given day. While it did have a lab, most trainers associated with that would be traversing regions at this time of year. As such, there wasn't much that could compete with Tauros.
Oak had managed to send off at least two assistants to get some pokemon from the lab, but they had yet to return. While clearly a young one, this Tauros was no slouch in what his herd likely taught him. As it stood, there were only so many pokemon that were combatting it.
Most of the pokemon in town weren't trained to handle the single stage. The only ones really fighting back were Raticate, Pidgey, and Oak's own Nidoking. Said Nidoking was holding up the best, but his heyday as a champion pokemon was decades back.
At this point, the poison/ground type was basically an old man who hadn't been properly trained in years. Even still, Oak was having his starter do everything it could to defend everyone as they were guided away from the scene.
Things would be easier if they could just find Tauros' pokeball, but that had gotten lost in the initial panic. It was clearly somewhere undamaged given any pokeballs they had tried failed to even suck the normal type in.
"Nidoking, is wearing down fast." Oak noted, knowing they'd have to try and end this now. "I need you to finish this now with superpower!"
Nidoking was cloaked in fighting energy before surging at Tauros. The normal type, having used a good few trailblaze to take down some of the opposing pokemon, was fast enough to move around Nidoking. The normal type then tackled full force into the poison/ground type's back.
The drill pokemon ended up collapsing to its knees, panting heavily. He was by no means at the point of fainting, but Nidoking's advanced age did him no favors against such a young pokemon more than willing to keep battling.
"If only we were younger, or I'd thought to bring even one of my other pokemon." Oak lamented.
He was only fortunate now in that others had their Raticate and Pidgey move in to get the wild bull pokemon away from his starter. That was all they could really do as Tauros, now unimpeded by the biggest threat out there, started taking the other pokemon down faster than he had prior.
"Professor, what do we do?" Delia asked.
Samual glanced around as many who had been present were able to evacuate, though enough remained. "Let's work on getting the last of the people out and hope my assistants return soon with pokemon from the lab."
Just before they could move, Grace noticed something. "There's a boy running out there!"
Samual and Delia turned, with the former stunned while the latter was suddenly afraid. What caused this was Ash himself. He had returned from the forest with Serena, only to leave her there and rush out upon seeing the rampaging pokemon.
"Ash!" Delia screamed.
The boy was so focused on the pokemon, his mother's voice was drowned out. Ash soon stopped and held his ground as the normal type now focused on him. Said wild bull pokemon charged him down, though moving sluggishly, as all pokemon against it were a non-threat now.
Ash didn't move and merely held his arms out. "Tauros, do you know who I am? I'm Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, and I'm destined to be the world's greatest Pokemon Master! As I will one day reach that tittle, I won't back down now! Now, stop this and calm down!"
Ash's words and eyes conveyed the command of a herd leader. This saw the normal type slowing before coming to a halt all together and staring down at Ash. Despite not having proved himself superior in locking horns, the gleam in this boy's eyes conveyed an unflinching bravery.
Tauros snorted before merely meandering off to eat some nearby grass. Everyone still left in the area could only stare on in bewilderment at what Ash had achieved. Quickly, one of them got over that as a fierce look crossed her face.
No longer minding the now calmed normal type, Delia stormed up to her son. "Ash Ketchum!"
Ash, now hearing his mother and how angry she sounded, was scared. "Mom!"
Hearing the boy scared of this human woman as opposed to him did wound Tauros' pride a little. Even with that fact, though the normal type would not admit it, he was intimidated enough to just keep eating the grass.
"You are in big trouble mister." Delia scolded. "You vanished on me without a trace before then doing something as reckless as staring down a ramping Tauros. Just what were you thinking? I have half a mind to never let your out of the house again…"
Delia continued to scold the young boy as Samual and Grace came up behind her. Both were willing to wait while Ash nervously pointed to the two of them.
"M-mom…" Ash voiced.
That did stop Delia, who turned to face the pair. Before she could nervously play off her anger, she was reminded of who would be the person responsible for all this. Even though she was good friends with Samual, that didn't absolve the good professor of what happened today.
"Professor Oak!" Delia exclaimed with the anger of a true mama bear, which had awoken in spades today. "You've clearly become lax on the pokemon you acquire for these camps. When there are children involved, you need to take every precaution, so this doesn't happen."
"I fully agree and understand where you are coming from Delia." Professor Oak held up his hands while sweating a little. "Trust me when I say something like this shall never happen again."
"It better not." Delia declared, folding her arms.
"That said, despite what Ash did being rather reckless, I do believe I would like to thank him." Samuel stated. "Should that be alright with you?"
Delia stared down the professor for a good few moments before stepping aside. At this time, Samuel and Grace both stepped up to him.
Before the professor could speak, Grace beat him to it. "I'm sorry to interrupt what you have to say professor, but I have to ask…" She turned to the boy. "Ash, have you seen my Serena?"
"Oh." Ash realized this must be her mom. "Growlithe chased her into the woods, so I followed after the two of them. Eventually, I caught up to her. Serena had hurt her knee, so I helped her. When we came back, we could see Tauros, so I left her back in the brush to keep her safe."
Samuel made a mental note about Growlithe, intending to tell his assistants to find the fire type later if he hasn't returned by then. Though for now, the puppy pokemon should be just fine in the tamer wilds around Pallet Town.
Grace let out a sigh of relief, moving to get her daughter. "Thank Arceus."
"Well Ash, what you did today was rather reckless." Samuel got on one knee before the boy, offering him a kind smile. "Regardless of that, everything you've done has been rather telling about the young man you will become.
It also makes me indebted to you, which I plan to pay back once things have calmed down." He rested a hand on the boy's shoulder as he grinned at having done well in the eyes of the professor. "For now, know I'm thankful Ash."
Evening…
It was a rather hectic first day of pokemon camp, and while some understandably wanted to take their children home; others were all for keeping the camp going. Despite how angered and worried Delia was over Ash, she had to recognize her boy had done some special things that day.
As such, she agreed to let Ash return. In exchange, he'd be spending a fair amount of time at home once camp wrapped up. With the assistants managing to find Growlithe, he was once again playing with the fire type. He came to a sudden stop when Growlithe started barking.
Ash turned in the direction the puppy pokemon was looking, only to smile as he saw who was coming. "Serena!"
At the sound of his voice, Serena's heart started pounding. "Hey Ash!"
Once they were together, Ash went about properly introducing the Kalos native to Growlithe. Initially, Serena was terrified, but he managed to reassure her. Due to her knee injury, the blond couldn't play tag, so they sat under a nearby tree to chat.
In the Distance
Grace watched her daughter from afar. With everything that's happened, she'd been leaning towards calling an end to camp. That was now instantly off the table with her little girl making a friend, one who was seemingly having success introducing her to pokemon.
Walking behind Serena's mother, Gary Oak, the grandson of Samuel Oak, stopped to stare at specifically Ash. He has auburn hair and black eyes. Normally, he wouldn't miss an opportunity to mess with Ash, but after hearing all that he did today…
"There's no way any of that stuff happened." Despite such a thought, a look of uncertainty crossed the normally arrogant boy's face as he walked away. "Even if gramps says he did, there's no way Ashy-boy did any of the things I've been hearing about."
Like almost every other child his age, he'd left with his grandpa's assistants, so he never saw Ash managing to stare down the rampaging Tauros. Sure, he could believe Ash vanished into the forest for a bit, but to believe he helped some girl? It was simply unbelievable.
Professor Oak's Lab: Three Week's Later…
After the first day, things settled into what one would expect from the pokemon camp. Those that stayed had a blast before it was inevitably time for those who lived elsewhere to depart. Now two weeks after the end of camp, Samuel had asked Delia to bring Ash to the lab.
He figured it was the right time, what with Delia easing up on her son. Of course, it was understandable that a mother would be overbearing after what could have happened to him. Though it is the fact of what did happen that day which prompted his decision now.
Upon one of his assistants leading the pair to the seating area, Samuel nodded to the mother/son pair. "Hello Delia and Ash." He smiled. "I'm glad you are here for there is much I would like to discuss with the two of you." He gestured to the nearby couch. "Please, have a seat."
"What is this about, Samuel?" Delia asked.
"Firstly, do you like pokemon Ash?" Oak asked, a question he already knew the answer to.
"You bet I do." Ash grinned as he answered without even having to think about it. "Pokemon are awesome."
"When you turn ten, in roughly three years, do you plan on going out on a journey?" Oak asked, a question he again knew the answer to, yet the confirmation by words was important.
"Of course, I do." Ash declared, again without even having to think about it.
"I've seen how you've grown over the years Ash, and after the events of that first day at pokemon camp, I've paid extra attention." Samuel smiled fondly. "Through your actions with Serena and how you interacted with the pokemon, you clearly have a big heart.
It also goes without saying you love pokemon; however, it is tempered by a great deal of bravery, given what you achieved with that Tauros. I believe you are someone with a deep well of untapped potential. All around, I am impressed and indebted."
"While what you've said about Ash is nice, I'm still wondering what this is about." Delia noted.
"Of course." Samuel nodded. "To put it simply, everything before the pokemon camp, as well as what could have happened after, would have likely led to me sponsoring Ash. Having a professor as a sponsor comes with quite a few boons.
You get a starter pokemon, free storage, and a top-of-the-line pokedex. While that is now locked in, I'd like to take it a step further. I am offering to mentor Ash, better prepare him for the day he becomes a trainer. I'd teach you everything needed to be a trainer.
We'd go on camping trips, I'd teach you how to cook, and you'd learn how to defend yourself. When it comes to pokemon, I'd teach you their type matchups, how to care for them, and battling with them. Anything to give you a better start as a trainer."
While Ash didn't quite understand what was being offered to him in the beginning, hearing it explained now got him excited. "Would I also be allowed to play with and be around the pokemon you have at the lab?"
"You would." Oak smiled. "Of course, while your willingness is apparent, the decision does not rest solely on your shoulders."
Ash looked expectantly at his mother, silently pleading with her to let him do this, but there wasn't really a need for that. Delia had been frustrated with Samuel for the Tauros incident, which turned out to be a mistake on the Safari Zone. Now, that had faded.
"With what you are offering, I will agree provided you promise me you'll keep Ash safe professor." Delia declared.
While she trusted Professor Oak and had known the man for years now, this was her baby boy they were talking about. Entrusting him to Samuel, even though it obviously would not be the same as Ash going on a journey, was huge. She needed to hear him say it.
"I promise Ash will be safe with me." Samuel assured her.
Delia smiled, relieved. "Then, I see no reason not to accept."
"ALRIGHT!" Ash cheered.
With Gary
Gary had been at the lab, having a lesson on the basics of being a trainer with his grandfather's assistants. While he'd started out learning with Samuel, Gary had been quick to decide for himself he didn't want to, at minimum, just rely on his grandfather.
Being the grandson of such a man certainly had its perks, but the younger Oak was simply determined to utilize said perks in a different way. Now on his way down for a drink, he'd stopped upon hearing his grandfather talking with Delia and Ash.
The boy ended up sitting down, hanging his head to allow his hair to cover his eyes as he ruminated on just what was happening. Regardless of whether Ash did all that stuff did, it didn't matter now. What truly mattered was that he'd become his grandpa's student.
While Gary had made his decision well before this point, he couldn't deny a sense of envy. "Ashy-boy is recognized by my grandfather…"
It was hard to believe, but it wasn't like Gary could deny what he heard. That wasn't even mentioning the fact they were still talking about it, Samuel and Delia hammering out the details. Still, it seemed like such a contradiction since he was always better than Ash.
Soon enough, the envy turned to determination as Gary stood and walked back up the stairs. "Fine, gramps can teach Ashy-boy all he wants while I continue working with his assistants. I won't let him surpass me from some lucky break."
My first story, Ash's Remixed Journey, did well enough; however, I feel as though I did not push the envelope enough. While that story will still stand and be updated, I want to see how this idea can pan out. Now, I'm not sure if this will pan out as an Ash x Serena story. Given the events of this chapter, Serena will still have those feelings for Ash, but I make no promises on turning this into another pairing between them.
Another thing to note is the fact that no matter what region Ash traveled through in canon, he was always ten years old. That means in theory the main stories that do take place in each region could be seen as only happening once the boy travels to that region. This is important because it means I can in theory utilize the XY anime, though I do have some general changes and more expansive ones to come.
