Welcome, one and all, to Mezase Pokemon Master! This story was originally called 'Everyone's Journey', a title that probably would've fit more but a title I didn't use regardless! You'll notice very quickly that I am awful at describing things. My apologies. I'm trying to get better! Because I didn't really know how to bring it up in the story without it being out of place, I'll just say now that Blue has Gary's skin and hair color despite being called Blue instead of Gary. I like Gary's colors better.
"SQUIRTLE, USE HYDRO PUMP!" 6 year old Ash Ketchum yells at a computer screen.
"Ash, it's just a game. You know it can't hear you, right?" His best(?) friend(?), Blue, stares at him in confusion before pressing a button.
On the screen, an Elekid uses Thundershock to cause Squirtle to faint.
"Aw man…" Ash sighs in defeat.
"I told you, type matchups are everything! You'll never beat an Elekid with a Squirtle!" Blue scoffs smugly.
"Oh, yeah? Well what if the simulation is wrong?!"
Blue stares at Ash like he just said the sky is red. "An official Smogon University battle simulator, wrong? Are you insane?"
"I don't even know what insane means!" Ash says, but he isn't helping his case in Blue's eyes.
"Exactly." Blue smirks. "You don't know anything."
"I know that you're a big fat jer-"
Ash is cut off by his mother, Delia, opening the door to his room.
"Blue," She says. "Your grandfather is here."
Blue looks upset. "I'm not supposed to be picked up for another hour! What gives?!"
"Oh-" Delia almost facepalms from her own mistake. "-he's not here to pick you up, he wants to show you and Ash something."
Elsewhere…
Pichu, the Tiny Mouse Pokemon.
Yellow, small, generally seen as adorable.
Generally seen as food.
A Fearow looking for an easy meal tries to impale the poor mouse with its beak, but Pichu fires off a weak Thundershock. A weak Thundershock that paralyzes.
Pichu is dazed for a moment by its own electricity, but quickly regains its bearings and runs away before Fearow can fully move.
Unfortunately, Fearow is much faster and catches up quickly once it is able to fly again.
The bird lets out a mocking battle cry before swooping down. Pichu rolls out of the way, but ends up tripping on a twig in the process, now rolling all the way off of a cliff.
Fearow cackles knowing how vulnerable its prey is in the air like this and flies towards Pichu.
Pichu closes its tiny eyes, ready for the end…
But a Hyper Beam strikes Fearow out of the sky, and Pichu is caught by very stubby hands. It looks up and sees a baby Kangaskhan, with the mother currently recharging after using that attack.
Fearow stands up in glares at the mother Kangaskhan in anger, but soon begins to look on in, well, fear, then ow, as it is struck by another Hyper Beam. Fearow decides this is no longer worth its time and flies away.
The mother Kangaskhan bellows in satisfaction at a successful rescue, and stomps back over to her herd. The other Kangaskhan do not look weary at the newcomer, and in fact welcome it with cheerful cries.
Pichu is too busy greeting its new friends that it fails to notice two shapes flying overhead with a third running after them.
Professor Oak wipes the brief look of pity he had when Delia went back in her house away as soon as she came back out with Ash and Blue.
He would hit himself for even having that look in the first place later. It's been several years since Ash's father left Delia when she was only 19, if she's over it by now, clear eyebags aside, then he should be to.
"Blue, Ash, a pleasure to see you both!" Oak would question the absence of Red later. Red is…an odd child sometimes.
"Hi, Professor Oak!" Ash waves.
"What is it, Gramps?" Blue asks. Disrespectful and to the point as usual.
Oak doesn't mind it one bit though as that's just how children tend to be. "Today's a very special day- have you ever wanted to see three legendary Pokemon?"
Delia, Ash, and Blue's eyes all widen but for different reasons.
"That sounds dangerous, Sam." Delia voices her concern before the children can voice their excitement.
"Don't forget you're staring at a former League Champion, Delia! It'll be fine, I'll keep them safe."
Oak isn't sure if Delia actually forgot. She probably can't with how much Ash talks about it.
"If you say so-"
Delia gets cut off- Ash hears an okay, Ash hears a reason to start asking questions.
"Where? What legendary Pokemon? What type are they? Are they native to Kanto or from somewhere else?"
"The nearby forest, the Galarian forms of the Legendary Birds, all of them are part Flying-type, and they're from Galar…allegedly, at least. Today is one of the rare days they migrate to Kanto, and I thought you might want to see them. Only from a distance, though!"
Ash nods excitedly, while Blue just nods.
"It'll be good to see my future captures!" Blue says with a smirk. Ash rolls his eyes.
"Very well." Oak walks towards the door. "Delia, I'll be back with them soon, I promise."
Focus.
Red needs focus.
He didn't run away when his mom wasn't looking to not succeed in his current mission.
His current mission being lifting a tree with his psychic abilities.
He already has telepathy, so he believes he can use telekinesis too, and he plans to prove that theory right.
Red holds his hands out and focuses on a tree…
Come on, come on…
…
Nothing outside of a headache.
Red sighs. This is hopeless.
His self-loathing is disrupted by the sound of running next to him. He looks up and spots Galarian Zapdos.
A legendary Pokemon. And he can see the shadows of Articuno and Moltres, too.
Red readies a Pokeball that he's far too young to actually have. He's going to catch all three of them.
Zapdos pays no mind to the human who is surprisingly keeping up with it. The human is young, and therefore weak, and therefore he will simply perish during their battle. Not its problem.
"I will catch you." A voice says?
No…as a Psychic type, Articuno recognizes this. It is telepathy, and it is coming from Red.
Articuno scoffs. This insignificant worm wants to capture them? As humans always do. The battle can wait, this boy needs to be put in his place for not only trying to interrupt them but also for declaring something so foolish.
With a great caw, Articuno's eyes shoot out purple lasers towards Red who just barely managed to dodge the attack. Zapdos is too caught off guard to dodge.
Confused and assuming they decided to start the fight here, Moltres suddenly attacks Articuno with a Shadow Ball.
Zapdos rolls their eyes. If the fight is happening here…
They would make sure Red stays out of the way.
An easy feat, seeing as he is extremely close to them- this would be payback for the interference that also caused them to be attacked by Articuno.
As they dashed towards him, they relished in his sudden look of horror as he realized how grave his mistake was.
Far too late for anything to be done, though. No human dodges Zapdos's Drill Peck.
Oak notices the two legendaries fighting in the sky, and stops, also having to put out his hand to stop Ash who wasn't paying Oak any attention due to the aforementioned fight.
"This is troublesome." Oak fidgets with a pen out of stress. "Not only is this very abnormal for them, but we're too close to their battle now."
"How is it not normal?" Blue asks. "They look like the type to fight each other a lot."
"Of course they look like that to YOU." Ash says. "Takes one to know one, after all!"
"What was that?!" Blue shakes Ash by the shoulders.
"Children, please." Oak sighs.
Ash and Blue stop and act like they weren't doing anything in the first place.
"Anyways," Oak continues "This is abnormal because they usually choose a very open area to fight, but right now they're doing it in the middle of the forest. The Galarian Birds fighting in a heavily populated area such as this forest can only mean bad things. For you see, they are extremely cruel Pokemon that only care about-"
Oak pales as a familiar shape flies past him and into a tree.
"-...defeating each other."
He tries to move to cover the childrens' eyes, but it's already too late. They see what lies at the stump of the tree.
"...Red?" Blue takes slow steps towards the tree, shaken. Ash, on the other hand…
"Red!" He bolts over to the tree and tried to help his friend up, but he isn't responding, and not in the way he usually doesn't respond.
Not to mention the gaping red hole dangerously close to where his heart is.
Then Ash hears the cries of all of the Pokemon that are clearly being hurt in the fallout of the ongoing battle. And when it came to his friends and Pokemon in danger, all reason leaves Ash Ketchum.
"Ash, don't!" The old man is too slow to catch the boy before he runs into the woods. Now Oak is faced with the difficult decision of what to do in this situation.
"..Blue, I need you to go back to Pallet Town with Red and call Officer Jenny along with a hospital. I'm going after Ash!"
Professor Oak takes out a Pokeball and throws it into the air, releasing a large Dragonite.
"You own a Dragonite?!" Blue would have sounded more angry at being left out if it weren't for Red's condition.
"Hurry!" Oak says as he hopped on to the back of Dragonite. This was an order to both his Pokemon and his grandson.
The mother Kangaskhan is terrified. A calm and peaceful scene quickly erupted into chaos as powerful attacks were flying left and right and severely injuring many Pokemon, including herself. Fortunately she was able to prevent her baby and Pichu from taking any damage, though.
The forest's guardian, an elderly Nidoking, runs over to Kangaskhan to check if she and her herd are alright, while his wife and children guide many of the Pokemon to safety.
Kangaskhan wishes she could say they were, but they honestly aren't. Kangaskhan tries to move but grunts in pain instead.
Nidoking growled at the battle birds in the sky, and muttered something that translated to 'foreigners…'
The baby Kangaskhan asked Nidoking where they should go. Nidoking had no idea- the baby can't walk on its own, Kangaskhan is too hurt to move- the only two here that could make an escape are the Pichu and himself.
Any further thinking was prevented by Nidoking being blasted by a stray Freezing Glare from Articuno. The super effective hit does massive damage and renders Nidoking in a similar state to Kangaskhan.
Things are not looking good.
"Stop it! I'm trying to help you!" A young voice shouts.
Turning towards the source, a toddler with spiky hair and strange birthmarks on his face is shielding himself from a frenzied Spearow flock. The baby Kangaskhan is obviously just a baby, but it is strong enough to repel the flock with a Thunderbolt. Thankfully, the Spearow flew away from the battle.
"Oh- Thank you!" Ash seems relieved for a brief second but that washes away when he sees the state of the Pokemon around him.
Before he can speak, Nidoqueen comes over to pick up her husband. A group of Nidorino and Nidorina all collectively help to pick up Kangaskhan and by extension, Pichu).
"Um." Ash spoke up. "So are you guys going to be-"
The 'okay?' is cut off by Zapdos unleashing a powerful Hurricane that hit its targets but still caused winds so powerful that everyone struggles to stay in place. One Pokemon struggled, and failed.
Pichu. And it's headed right off a cliff. Again.
"Oh no!" Not even thinking, Ash jumps right after Pichu and takes it into his arms.
Another Hurricane was fired by Zapdos, and this one caught the two in it before they could tumble down and possibly die.
But the pain of a legendary Pokemon's Hurricane is arguably worse than death.
Ash makes sure that, as the winds carry them back over to the Pokemon, he is the one to take the full force of the impact when they hit the ground.
"Are you okay?" Ash asks Pichu, not even caring to check on his own injuries.
Pichu can only slowly nod.
"Ow…" The human body is frail, even moreso for a child, and all of the damage Ash has taken in such a short time is catching up to him.
He can't stop now, though. Not when these birds are putting so many Pokemon in danger over their personal disputes.
Heavy rain starts to pour, stinging Ash's cuts and bruises. It even stings more to move when he's sure something was broken- him still being alive is a miracle.
None of this would stop him. Only death would.
Ash grabs three rocks- he'd been practicing his Pokeball throws for a long time, and is happy to see that the practice paid off when every single stone hits their avian targets.
The birds turned to the boy. They see another speck that thinks it is important enough to interrupt their fight.
"You! Do you know what you're doing?! There are all of these Pokemon living in this forest and you're hurting them just because of your stupid fight! You hurt my friend because of your stupid fight! How could you?!"
The birds can only snicker at Ash's words.
"You humans call us legendaries. The way I see it, we can do whatever we want. What are you compared to us?" Articuno mockingly says telepathically.
Not phased by the telepathy, Ash declares: "I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town! And when I become a Pokemon Trainer, I'm going to be a Pokemon Master! And I'll start my road to that by taking down any bullies like you!"
"You're severely mistaken, boy." Articuno snickers once more. "You're not going to be anything but dead!"
All three birds charge at Ash, beaks sharpened.
In the sky, Oak's Dragonite is going as fast as it can now that it sees Ash, but it's not going to make it in time.
"No! No!" Oak cries.
If all of this weren't enough, a bolt of lightning, the largest Oak has ever seen, comes down from the sky, right towards Ash.
But in the blink of an eye, Pichu leaps into the air, as high as it can, and takes the lightning strike directly.
It hurts- it hurts so much. It hurts to take on actual, non-Pokemon lightning, especially a bolt this powerful. It hurts to try and contain it and it hurts even more to actually contain it.
And it hurts the most to release it.
But Pichu would do this, for the Kangaskhan and human that showed him such brief, yet warm kindness today. He never had it before, and he'll be damned if anyone tries to take it away from him right after he gets it, Legendary or not.
What Pichu unleashes might be the strongest electric attack in the world. It unroots and burns the trees around him to a crisp. It burns Ash and sends him flying into the arms of Oak's Dragonite.
And it absolutely destroys the Legendary Birds, who take the full force of the entire thing.
All of that electric power…
Is far too much for a small, weak Pichu. As soon as all of the light dies down, it falls unconscious.
The Legendary Birds, still but just barely standing, see this as the opportunity for an easy kill…
"Oh no, you don't." Oak states threateningly.
The birds look up to his Dragonite, who huffs as a warning sign.
"We will not take a loss lightly, old man." Articuno growls. "We will be back one day, and we will make sure you all pay."
The birds begrudgingly fly (or run, in the case of Zapdos) away.
Ash looks up to the sky, and sees…another bird. But this is not one of malevolence- Ash can clearly see that.
"Hey, Professor Oak." Ash says weakly. It hurts for him to speak, admittedly. "Who's that Pokemon?"
Oak is in awe at what he sees. "Another Legendary Pokemon. Ho-Oh."
Ho-Oh looks down on the carnage that has been caused. It spreads its great wings, and in a second, all is healed in a great flash of rainbow light that temporarily blinds everyone.
Ho-Oh is gone by the time it dies down. But it left behind a gift in Ash's hands…
A Rainbow Wing.
So I'm trying to create a sort of long-term antagonist for the two that aren't Team Rocket for reasons you'll see when the Kanto/Orange Islands arc ends. The Galarian Birds will not simply disappear until Journeys, you will be seeing them again before that. Not in Kanto or the Orange Islands, though.