Pokémon: Thunder Yellow

[Seijiro Mafuné]

Hello, everyone. Welcome to ‘Pokémon: Thunder Yellow’, a storytelling of sorts. Based on the original ‘Pokémon: Yellow Version’ videogame, what came to my mind was the following: what if this game had been remade, like the original Red and Green Versions, for the Game Boy Advance? And what if, rather than follow the animé storyline proper, it simply took the base and made its own storyline, unrelated to any previous games?

As some of you may realize, this isn’t likely, considering the reason why the Yellow Version was made. However, some people can dream… and I decided to write down my own version of what such a storyline would involve. This will be unlikely to have any relationship to any fics of mine you people see here, but well… we’ll have to see.

Oh, and if the name wasn’t enough indication… this fic stars Ash and Pikachu. Like the Animé. Complaining now will be a waste of time.

Pokémon: Thunder Yellow
Third in the Pokémon Kanto Version Series

Chapter One: A Journey Start-Up

It was another beautiful day in the small and peaceful Pallet Town, home of the most important scientist of Kanto and his family, even if it wasn’t known for much more besides that. The new morning had led to the usual business, with kids playing around on the streets and parks, while their parents watched from the safety of their homes, or even went out with them to take care of their kids. It was as if the ever-going peace they experienced could never end, and that all the problems of the world were just something that didn’t bother them.

However, none of them suspected that today was actually the start of an important series of events, the repercussions of which would affect their own lives.

In the northern side of town, away from the suburbs, there was one peculiar house. It looked rather peaceful and uninteresting, with two floors and a well-groomed garden, though it was fairly away from the rest of the town. It had also a mailbox, with the name of the family written on the side. It was a rather simple word, really, even if uncommon.

On the top floor, sitting in a large room, was a young, scrawny, short, black-haired boy. He was dressed lightly, in only a black shirt and blue jeans, but that didn’t seem like a problem for him now. After all, seeing as how he was playing a rather interesting game on his NES, which apparently involved pressing the Start button, tapping each directional key at least twice and the regular keys, and then pressing Start again. Of course, the fact that this did not make the game particularly easier, but in fact only seemed to make his character die more, was quite a mystery as to why he constantly did that.

While he was busy repeatedly tapping said keys, there was a knocking on the room’s door, enough to be a distraction. “Ash! Are you awake?” a female voice asked, and the boy blinked, before pausing the game.

“Yeah, mom!” he replied, and the door opened. A young woman walked inside, with bright brown hair tied into a ponytail and dressed in a pink dress with a yellow shirt underneath. “What is it?”

“I thought I had asked you to come down and have breakfast before you decide to go on and play one of those games of yours,” she said, in a stern tone. “Not to mention that I thought you were still asleep and waited half an hour for nothing, seeing as how you didn’t even come out of your room and talk to me.”

“Sorry, mom…” Ash apologized, as he realized his mistake. “I just wanted to see if I could beat the high score before it was eight o’clock! I almost had 573 points!”

“Well, it seems you forgot to check on the clock…” his mother said, pointing at a nearby clock. It was already 8:15, according to it, and the boy gasped.

“WHAT?! Crap, I knew I forgot something!” he cried out, before turning off the NES and running around, picking up more clothing, putting it all on a rush. Socks, sneakers, blue and white jacket, green fingerless gloves, official Pokémon League cap… it didn’t take him long before he was completely dressed, and running off to the door, almost pushing against her.

“Wait! Don’t you want breakfast first?” the woman cried out, worried, and the boy shook his head.

“No time for that, mom! Ellen would never forgive me if I missed out on today, and Gary’s going to be gloating all day too! I’ve got to get there before it’s too late!” he told her, going downstairs fast and, from there, running outside. His mother tried to follow, but she was too late to stop him, as he reached the entrance gate. Even then, she still called for him.

“Ash! Wait just a moment!” With that, the boy stopped, and turned towards her. Surprisingly, she was smiling. “‘All boys leave home one day’… it said so on TV. I’ll be wishing you the best luck… and for you to do your best!” Ash blinked, before smiling in response.

“Thanks, mom… I’ll make sure to be the best! You just wait for it!” he replied, before going out and running off. His mother watched him go, with some worry, but she was still smiling.

As he ran across the streets, Ash couldn’t help but think on the recent events. Yesterday, at last, he had had his birthday, and with that, the chance of becoming a Pokémon trainer had finally arrived. All he needed to do was receive a Pokémon from Professor Oak, go out in the world, catch several more, and beat the League… that’d be great! Finally, his dream of becoming a Pokémon Master was going to start! All he had to do was get there soon!

It was only after a turn that he realized the path he was taking led him directly to his house, instead of to the lab. That was weird; Ash could swear he was taking the wrong way… still, the fact that Daisy was sitting by the garden, reading with a cup of tea in front of her, was enough to make him stop worrying. “Hey, Daisy! How’s stuff?” he asked, and the older girl blinked, looking at him. She was a rather gorgeous teenager, at least three years older than him, with long brown hair that went only slightly down her shoulders and dressed in a simple outfit.

“Oh, hello, Ash,” she replied, courteously. “Did you come to see Grandpa?”

“Yeah…” the boy admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “My birthday was yesterday, so I’m going to get my first Pokémon! He’s at his laboratory, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he is,” she replied, nodding. “Gary’s already there, too.” Hearing that name made Ash lose his smile, and he looked away. “You two are still in bad terms, aren’t you?”

“It’s not my fault if he couldn’t take a little haircut…” he muttered, as if that was nothing. Daisy giggled a bit, before restraining herself.

“I see… still, you two should try to stop arguing with each other. This little ‘rivalry’ of yours has been going on for quite a while, already… don’t you think you two should move on?”

“Maybe if Gary admits I’m better at handling Pokémon, I will,” Ash replied, proudly, and Daisy sighed.

“Boys… my little brother isn’t going to admit that, not when he’s the grandson of the very famous professor Oak,” she said. After a moment, she blinked. “Oh, right! Ellen passed by, earlier… she said something about wanting to tell you something, but she couldn’t go to your house for some reason.”

That piece of news was enough to make Ash smile again. “Really? I wonder what it is… it’s gotta be something really important, though, if she wants to talk to me herself! What do you think it is, Daisy?”

“Come on, Ash,” Daisy told him, crossing her arms, “Are you going to keep asking me these things, when you’re already grown up enough to know what they mean? And besides, I think I saw her looking at some flowers, when she was leaving… maybe you should get her some, too?”

“Hah, hah…” the young boy laughed, uneasy. “I guess I’ll go see your grandfather, now…”

“Say hello to my brother, while you’re there,” Daisy waved him off, before taking a sip of her tea.

It didn’t take long for Ash to reach the Pokémon Laboratory of Pallet Town, the most technologically advanced center of research in the entire western Kanto. It was a rather large building, built at the top of a tall hill, with a large windmill as its power source. On the back of it was a ranch that stretched pretty far in the horizon, where various Pokémon could be seen running amok and doing their own things.

After a short climb up the hill, the boy opened the doors wide. “Professor Oak! Are you there?” he called out, only to see the wise old man was nowhere in sight. Rather, there was a young woman and two young men, all of them looking around the same age and dressed in thick coats, and a few certain, familiar kids.

One of the boys had a wild mane of brown hair that seemed decided to grow on every single direction except down, forming spikes towards their upper side, and clad in a long, blue shirt and black pants, as well as brown boots and a small yellow and green disc hanging from a necklace, and was standing around the center, thoughtful.

The other boy had sunglasses on top of his stirred blue hair, dressed in a worn red shirt and a brown sleeveless coat, as well as a red handkerchief tied around his neck and black pants and sneakers. Unlike the first boy, he was looking at the books, most likely thinking about reading them.

The last member of the group that he could see, a girl their age, had long brown hair that she took very good care of, which went down to her back and looked somewhat uncombed, despite her treatment, and she wore an orange shirt with a red ribbon placed right on front of her chest, a green skirt, and white shoes with long stockings. She was sitting in a chair, somewhat bored out of her mind.

Seeing Ash arrive and make that much noise made the boys frown, even if the other scientists didn’t seem to have paid him any attention. “Great idea, Ash. You just had to scream, didn’t you?” one of them asked, crossing his arms. “Let me guess, you wanted to talk to Gramps or something?”

“Wow, Gary, you’ve completely figured me out,” Ash joked, in a sarcastic tone. “Did you think that all by yourself or did you ask your sister for help?”

“Save your breath, Ashy-boy,” was the response, as Gary glared at him. The fact that he had added a nickname wasn’t lost to either of them. “You’ve never been that good a comedian, and besides, I think you’d have noticed he’s not here by now.”

“Even so, you didn’t have to be so snippy about it, Gary,” the black-haired boy replied, before their argument was interrupted by the other boy, who had stopped looking at the books.

“Are you two going to keep arguing like that?” he asked, grunting for a moment. “Honestly, you two are almost as bad as a bunch of girls!”

“Hey!” the girl complained, then. “Damien, take that back! I’m not that bad!”

“Not you, Ellen…” Damien replied, but he sounded embarrassed now. “I just mean that these two can’t ever stop arguing! Honestly, why should we have to deal with that, when they could just spend a few minutes saying absolutely nothing and ignoring each other? It’s getting on my nerves!”

“Even so,” was her response, as she noticed Ash and Gary were still arguing with each other, “don’t you think you should learn some manners? Really, just because you never got to read Professor Oak’s books on rare and powerful Pokémon doesn’t mean you’re failing at life just because of that!”

“And how am I supposed to become a great Pokémon trainer and champion if I don’t have enough information on the powerful Pokémon of the world? I’m definitely going to get the strongest Pokémon ever and I’ll show you guys just how great I am!” Damien replied, making Ellen sigh.

“Honestly, Pokémon training isn’t about the strongest Pokémon. Strategy and tactics are also useful, seeing as how most Pokémon wouldn’t really make the ‘strongest’ mark, anyway, and it’s better to have several useful and pretty Pokémon than one or two hulking monstrosities,” she told them, halting the argument between the boys for a moment.

“Just six? Hah! I’ve decided that I’ll catch at least one of every single Pokémon there is!” Gary said, then, with a smirk. “That way I have all sorts of Pokémon to help me out with everything! And I’m going to keep training them as they win their battles, so that I always have a team of champions!”

“Well… why not just find six Pokémon of different types and train them equally?” Ash asked, and everyone stared at him. “I mean, if you have six good partners, they’ll make up for not having enough power, strategy, or different Pokémon for every situation, won’t they?”

The others spent a moment looking at him, before they broke out in laughter. From Gary’s sarcastic laughter, to Ellen’s constant giggling, and to Damien’s raucous mocking, it was obvious they all thought it was hilarious. The other scientists were frowning at them, though they didn’t notice it for a while. Ash glared at them, despite that.

“What’s so funny!?” he asked, and Gary stopped laughing for a moment.

“You’re joking, right? Just six Pokémon? What kind of trainer sticks with just six Pokémon? Everybody knows you need to have at least ten, with your Starter at helm! And you should try and get as many as possible, too!”

“Besides, if the six Pokémon you catch aren’t strong, it won’t be worth raising them all equally. It’s time and money we simply can’t afford to spend, remember? You’re going to have to leave a few behind… why not just find yourself a Dragon-type or a Psychic-type and end it there? Alakazams and Dragonites are great, you know!” Damien added, smirking in a nasty way. Ellen gave Ash an apologetic look and grin, as she stopped laughing as well.

“Sorry, Ash… but you have to admit that it’s not very smart to do that. You’ll be reducing your possible strategies and, since you’ll only have six Pokémon, your opponents will find it easy to figure out a strategy against all of them when they find out. Having more than six Pokémon is simply a mathematical advantage, but it’s also very useful on nearly every point.” Hearing that, Ash sighed, before giving them a rather nasty look.

“Whatever, Ellen… I guess you guys are right,” he said, a bit disappointed, before looking at a nearby table. Sitting in the center of it, atop cushions, were three red and white Pokéballs, already set on ‘ready’ mode. “There’s only three Pokéballs there, though… why?”

“Beats me, but considering Gramps is still out, I’m guessing he’s getting the last one for us.” For once, Gary didn’t sound completely annoying, though he was obviously staring at the Pokéballs now. “Why he wanted to call you, I have no idea, but I’m guessing it’d be pretty important. Of course, it can’t involve competency, because we all know how incompetent you are…”

“Maybe you should have taken your own advice; your jokes are even worse than your sense of style,” Ash told him. “After all, Gary, we’re all ten years old already, and just because my birthday was yesterday doesn’t mean you can act like I’m still nine.”

“Well, when the two of you seem to act like that all the time, it’s not really hard, now is it?” Damien asked, and the boys glared at him, while he smirked. “I mean, really, you two never stop arguing! Couldn’t you give a break and maybe, you know, admit that you two suck and I’m better than you?”

“Enough already!” Ellen told them, getting in-between the boys, before they could try and beat each other up. “This is possibly the last time we see each other for quite a long while! Can’t you at least try and be nice to each other until then?!” After a few moments, the boys let out a ‘fine’ and walked away from each other, with Ash thinking about what she had said.

“The last time we see each other…” he repeated, before beginning to walk away. Gary was watching him, until he noticed the black-haired boy was starting to leave.

“Hey, wait! Where are you going?” Gary asked, drawing their attention, and Ash looked back at him. “Gramps isn’t here yet, you know!”

“Yeah, but I didn’t come here to argue with you,” he said, in response, before running off. “I’m going to look for him. He’s probably out back, looking for your Pokémon, right?”

“Well, maybe, but-” the boy replied, just as he noticed Ash was running out to the other side of the building, from the outside. “Hey! Gramps told us to never go out back without permission! Ash, are you even listening to me?! ASH!!!” Despite his warnings, the other boy had jumped over the fence with ease, before running off towards the back of the ranch.

It didn’t take long until the boy was out of sight, already distracted with how large the ranch was. There were various Pokémon running around, from wild-looking Pinsirs to nasty-looking Spearows to even a weird-looking Pokémon from some other faraway Region. It was a pretty impressive place to look at, especially considering the amount of plants and Pokémon that could be seen. Ash was impressed at that, even if he didn’t know what all those Pokémon were. Even so, he still watched his surroundings with awe, his desire to become a Pokémon trainer growing more and more with what he saw. So many Pokémon! So many new things! And he could meet them all, too, if only-

“LOOK OUT!” a cry from behind distracted him, and Ash could only turn around, before seeing a blur. Even as he was pushed away, falling on the ground, the sounds of feet trampling the ground rumbled, and he could see several Tauros in stampede, running over the plain they were in. It took a few moments for the Pokémon to finally all head off away, at which point Ash felt the person who had been pressing him down release him. “Of all things…”

“Um, thanks…” the boy replied, before blinking in surprise. The person who was standing up, dressed in a lab coat, a red shirt, and brown pants, with graying hair and a wizened appearance, was… “Ah! Professor Oak!”

After a moment, the scientist realized who he was. “Ash? What are you doing here? Don’t you know how dangerous this place can be?” he asked, motioning around. They were surrounded by rather tall grass, which came up to their legs. He then proceeded to take Ash’s hand and getting him up, before starting to lead him away. “You should be at the Lab right now, not here!”

“Sorry… I didn’t want to get in trouble, professor,” Ash confessed, looking down embarrassed. “I just got so excited about today, I-”

Whatever Ash was going to say, however, was interrupted by the rustling of some bushes. As the two of them looked in its direction, they saw a small, yellow Pokémon, with two long yellow ears and black tips and a long, lightning-shaped tail, as well as three black stripes on its fur. It looked surprised to see the two humans, enough that it didn’t react.

“Whoa! What’s that?!” Ash cried out, and Oak frowned.

“A Pikachu… but why? I don’t remember keeping Pikachus here…” he replied, before noticing a detail. “No markings… it’s a wild Pokémon!”

“Wild?!” Ash repeated, startled. Oak nodded, already taking something from his pockets. It was a Pokéball, similar to the ones on the lab, but this one looked… a bit different. There were three white spots on the red top, and a different marking on the exact center of it. It was hard to see, though.

“Yes… probably came in through a hole in the fences. I’ll have to look for it later… for now, however!” Oak said, as he threw the enlarged Pokéball.

As soon as the Pikachu saw the Pokéball, it gasped and turned around, before running away from them. The weird-looking Pokéball was about to hit it, when it suddenly did a cut to the side, avoiding it completely.

“Wow, it’s fast!” Ash cried out, and Oak grunted, even as he went to pick up his Pokéball. Before he could, however, the Electric-type mouse Pokémon noticed that, and its cheeks crackled with electricity. After a moment, its entire body was covered with electricity, before sending it out to strike both Ash and Oak, who gave out cries of pain. After a couple of seconds, it stopped, and the two fell down on the ground, stunned.

“Strong, too… but still on par with an average Pikachu,” the Professor said, standing up soon after. The Pikachu was still there, standing on all fours and with his ears and tail straight up, a defiant look on his eyes.

“Is… is it challenging us?” Ash asked, surprised. Oak nodded, in an expert manner.

“Yes… it seems that it thinks we’re trespassing its own territory. How foolish… if anything, this Pokémon is the one who’s invading!” he said, before trying again. The Pikachu jumped over the incoming sphere, before tackling Oak head-on, forcing the older man down. “OOF!”

“Professor Oak!” Ash cried out, as the Pikachu jumped off the old man and jumped onto his face. While he was able to avoid getting pushed onto the ground as well, this only led to another shock, and the boy screamed in pain as he felt the hundreds of volts of electricity course through his body, before the Pikachu finally stopped. Ash’s body was smoking, now, as he collapsed onto the ground again, barely able to keep his hands and knees supporting him.

Even as he twitched, and the Pikachu got off him, Ash noticed the Pokéball was just close by, and the Pikachu was walking away. Oak was lying on his back, still; apparently, he was too old to handle such impacts that well, and Ash had the advantage of still being able to stand up, rather than having fallen completely. With a lunge, he grabbed onto the Pokéball, and then turned back quickly. The Pikachu was still on sight, distracted…

“Take this!” Ash cried out, as he threw the Pokéball awkwardly. Usually, this would result in a failure… but when the Pikachu turned around, confused by the human’s cry, it only saw the Pokéball when it was already too close, and when it turned around, the Pokéball impacted against its tail.

“Pika!” the Pokémon cried out, before its body began to glow in a red light, and the sphere opened up. Within seconds, it had absorbed the Pikachu completely, who had dematerialized into pure energy, and fell to the ground gently. As soon as it had, it began to shake, with the center button glowing red every few seconds. Finally, however, the Pokéball ceased its motion… and Ash let out his breath, relieved.

“I… I got it, professor…” the young boy said, relieved… and then, he heard a quiet laugh, from the side.

Turning in that direction, he saw that Oak was standing up, apparently unhurt, and he adjusted his own clothes. “Thank you for your help, Ash… but well, you didn’t have to have bothered. I was going to act, myself, once I was sure the Pikachu had been distracted enough… but well, at least it seems you can catch Pokémon on your own, if you don’t have any Pokémon you can use,” he said, and Ash smiled, after a moment.

“Wow… thanks, professor Oak! But I couldn’t have done it without that Pokéball!” he replied, and the old man walked towards the Pokéball, picking it up and looking at it for a moment.

“Indeed,” he said, placing it on his belt, again, and turning towards Ash. “However, if you think this kind of thing will lead to you becoming a successful trainer, you are gravely mistaken, do you hear me?” To that, the boy could only laugh, weakly.

Gary was watching from the ranch entrance, trying to look for Ash. Ellen had badgered both him and Damien into looking for him, but considering they weren’t allowed to go too far back, they had had to make a compromise and head as far as they could without losing sight of each other, meaning their area wasn’t as wide as it could have been. At least, if any Pokémon passed by, he’d be able to run from them, rather than get hit by accident.

As he gave a look around, he saw the others were coming back, and decided to run back as well. He reached the Laboratory a moment after Ellen did, and she was taking a deep breath. “So, you haven’t found him yet?” he asked, and she shook her head, flustered.

“No… he didn’t come here,” she said, with some difficulty. “You didn’t find him either… do you think Damien-”

“Doesn’t look like it,” he said, and she blinked. Coming from the other side, obviously fairly annoyed, was the blue-haired boy. It seemed he had been running for a while, as well.

“Neither one of you saw him, either?” he asked, and they shook their heads in response. “Great… I can’t believe it! Is he always going to ruin things like that?”

“Hey, Ash hasn’t ruined anything yet!” Ellen told him, angrily. “It’s not his fault that Professor Oak hasn’t arrived yet! And besides, at least he tried to help, which is more than I can say for you!”

“It figures that you’d say that…” Gary said, biting back a laugh, and the brown-haired girl glared at him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, and Damien snorted.

“Isn’t it obvious? You’re always defending him whenever he does something stupid, and you tend to get on his nerves less than on ours, whenever he and Gary start one of their silly arguments,” he explained, and she looked away, embarrassed.

“I just don’t like seeing you guys argue! And besides, you guys always pick on him, either! You can’t just keep doing that, it’s not fair! What if you guys got picked on like he is, would you be happy if nobody tried to protect you?”

Damien smirked, then. “Why would we need anyone to protect us? Besides, it’s not like you wouldn’t do it, anyway; you ‘protect’ anyone you think is cute, don’t you?” he asked, and Ellen’s face contorted in fury, while she clenched her hands and started moving menacingly towards him.

“You had better take that back, you hear me?!” she cried out, only to feel a hand on her shoulder. When she turned around, surprised, she saw Gary shaking his head, stopping her from assaulting him.

“Look at the side, you two, and stop fighting,” he told them, and they turned in that direction. In the distance, they could see both Ash and Professor Oak, walking towards the lab.

“Ah, they’re back!” Ellen squealed, and Damien turned away, before beginning to walk inside. After a moment, the other two turned towards him. “What’s wrong, Damien?”

“Spare me the sugary goodness, okay?” he said, obviously not interested in staying for much longer. “I’d rather get my Pokémon and leave rather than see you make googly eyes at Ash.” While he walked back inside, Ellen let out a cry of anger, before turning towards Gary.

“What’s his problem? Why does he think that I’m making those, or whatever they are?” she asked, and Gary shrugged.

“You know he doesn’t like Ash… not since that incident,” he replied, before walking towards the lab, as well. “Come on, we had better get inside before Gramps arrives.”

“Fine…” she said, following him back inside. She was looking pretty thoughtful, however, and didn’t seem to be paying the others much attention, as she took her seat again.

Finally, after about a minute or so, Ash and Oak walked inside the laboratory. “So, Ash, do you understand now why you’re not supposed to be running off on your own, in my ranch?” he asked, though he sounded like he knew it’d fall in deaf ears, so he wasn’t that serious about expecting an honest answer.

“Yeah…” Ash replied, a bit lamely, before looking at Gary. “See? Professor Oak was on the back.”

“Whatever,” the boy scoffed, surprising the other one. He then looked at Oak. “But Gramps, why are you two looking so messy? It’s almost as if you had a run-in with a thunderbolt or something…”

“I was wondering about that, too,” Ellen admitted, while Damien pretended he wasn’t thinking the same. Oak grumbled something under his breath, before speaking up.

“That isn’t important, kids. For now, I would like you all to make a line, side by side. And Ash, stay on your place; I don’t want to see you and Gary having another argument, you hear me?”

“Hey!” Ash complained, only for Gary to smirk again. Oak sighed, before frowning.

“That goes for you too, Gary. You still have to pay for the things you broke last month,” he said, wiping the smile out of his grandson’s face. Ellen and Damien had just walked by the two boys’ sides, with Ellen standing between Ash and Gary and Damien standing by Gary’s side. “Now, let me remind you four of the reason why you are here. During the past month, the four of you all became ten years old, making you eligible for Pokémon licenses. These licenses were delivered to you yesterday, and you have been waiting until I had the necessary amount of Pokémon for the lot of you. Now that I do have them, however, you can finally start your own journeys as Pokémon trainers, travelling around the world, capturing Pokémon and collecting Gym Badges, and proceeding to become Pokémon Masters, as I assume you have been dreaming of for so long. Is that right?”

“Yeah!” Ash cried out, followed by Ellen’s own cheerful cry and a smirk from both Gary and Damien, who were obviously as decided to win as the other two. Now that they were all in front of him, Oak gave one last look over them all, before nodding.

“Now, we will be going from oldest to youngest…” he began, only for Ash to cry out, disappointedly.

“Aww, man! I’m always last! Why can’t I be first at least once?” he asked, and both Gary and Damien snickered for a bit.

“Ash, I’d suggest you stay quiet, for now,” Oak said, before glaring at the other two boys, silencing them. “Ellen, would you go first?”

“Of course, professor,” she replied, walking towards the table and looking at the three Pokéballs carefully. After a few moments, she chose the leftmost sphere, picking it up. “I choose this one.”

“Ah, good choice, Ellen,” Oak told her, smiling. “That’s Bulbasaur, the Seed Pokémon! It’ll take time to grow the strongest, but it’s still very powerful!”

“Sounds pretty fitting,” Damien joked, as Ellen walked back to them. “After all, you really like plants, don’t you?”

“Honestly…” the brown-haired girl harrumphed, after hearing that. Professor Oak, noticing that, decided to continue with the handing of Pokémon.

“Damien, it’s your turn,” he told the arrogant boy, who smirked and headed towards the table, before looking at both remaining Pokéballs. He took only a second, before picking up the rightmost sphere.

“Well, I choose this one,” he said, playing with it by throwing it up for a moment. After grabbing it, he placed it on his belt, and Oak nodded.

“That one is Charmander, the Lizard Pokémon. Compared to Bulbasaur, it’ll grow strong fast, but careful handling is required,” he told the boy, who headed back to his place on the line. “Now, Gary, you can go and choose your Pokémon.”

“What’s there to choose?” Gary replied, as he took the last Pokéball, looking at his grandfather. “I already know which one this is. You don’t have to worry about telling me.”

“Well… I must say this is somewhat unexpected,” Oak admitted, as he noticed Ash was standing in wait, nervously, while Gary and Damien began to make their way out, and Ellen watched Ash with some worry. The black-haired boy was growing more and more nervous, as he waited. There had only been three Pokéballs there, meaning three Pokémon… had professor Oak really not planned on giving him one Pokémon? Was this why he had chosen the ‘oldest-youngest’ route? Because that way, his grandson would still get to have a Pokémon? After all, either by first or last name, Ash would still have been, if not first, at least third, while Gary would have remained as the fourth…

Damien and Gary were about to leave, when they noticed Ellen hadn’t moved, yet. “Hey, Ellen!” Gary called out, from the entrance. “What’s the matter? Come on, we had better hurry before it’s lunchtime!”

“Um…” the girl muttered, nervously, before looking back at Ash. He looked so weak, as he just stood there, fearing that he’d never get to have a Pokémon of his own, and that he’d remain behind while his friends all got to go on a journey and became popular. It was a rather dreary prospect, really…

“I… think I’ll stay here, right now,” she told them, surprising the duo. “I mean…”

“You’d rather make company to Ash while he waits for his Pokémon, Ellen?” Gary asked, then. “Well, this sure looks weird… I mean, Gramps, you never forgot a Pokémon for anyone, as far as I’ve known. Nobody ever had to be left out on Pokémon training just because you didn’t have enough Pokémon. What’s going on?”

At that moment, the older man smiled, and walked towards Ash. “Well, I wasn’t really trying to make such a show for it, but…” he explained, calmly.

“Professor Oak?” Ash asked, blinking, before he saw Oak offer him a Pokéball, which looked remarkably familiar. “Is that-”

“Yes, Ash,” Oak said, and now the other kids had looked at them, curious. “This is the Pokéball containing that Pikachu we found, and I would like you to keep it. It will probably prefer being with you and getting the chance to grow than being examined by me, in the laboratory. Please, take it.”

After a few moments, Ash nodded, receiving the Pokéball from him. He stared at it, in wonder, before smiling in wonder. “T… thank you very much, professor Oak!” he said, his eyes shining a bit now.

“You are welcome, Ash,” he said, and Ash turned around, looking at the others. “Wow, it’s so cool! I got a Pokémon from professor Oak!”

“Wow, congratulations, Ash!” Ellen complimented him, smiling. Ash rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed, while Gary smirked and began walking away again, apparently pleased for some reason.

Damien, however, had a different plan. “Hold it, Ash!” he called, and the black-haired boy blinked. “Do you really think a Pokémon journey starts easy like that?”

“What do you mean, Damien?” Ash blinked, and the blue-haired boy gave a rather nasty laugh, before taking out his Pokéball and showing it to him, smirking.

“It’s simple, really. We’ll have a one-on-one Pokémon battle, and we’ll even bet some money. Winner takes all, loser cries and runs away,” he explained, making Ellen frown.

“Hey! You can’t challenge Ash like that! He just got his Pokémon, and so do you! Do you even think it’s fair for him?” she asked, before noticing that Damien had grimaced.

“Did anyone even ask for your opinion?” he told her off, roughly, and the girl gasped in surprise. “This is between me and him, and you had better not get involved!”

“Hey, man, no need for harsh words…” Gary tried to calm him down, but a glare from the other boy silenced him. As Damien looked back at Ash, he smirked.

“So, are you coming, Ash?” he said, receiving a glare in response.

“You had better apologize to Ellen, when I’m done with you!” Ash demanded, taking out his own Pokéball in response. Both boys reared their arms back, then.

“If you even manage to win, I’ll consider it!” Damien mocked, before throwing his own Pokéball forward, releasing his own Pokémon. “Charmander, go!”

...!

So, I hope you all have enjoyed this first chapter. I will hopefully bring more to you soon… after some updates.

As for the next chapter hint, hn… well, why should I tell you? I’ll bet you can’t predict this, after all.

I will not ask for reviews, but if you do, I’ll make sure to apply it, if it’s constructive. If not… well, my reaction will be slightly different.

[Orion-Sama]

Yay, I'm first up, it seems. I must say this was quite entertaining to read. Knowing both Pokémon Yellow and the Anime, I must say you've managed to merge them both quite well. The addition of Damien was much unexpected, to say the least. But as I see the events of both universes unfold, it makes complete sense. Nice to have Ellen too! And with a most unexpected outfit, no less. As well as an interest in Ash, or so it seems.

The description was quite decent, and never dragged on. I enjoyed a whole lot how Pikachu made its entrance and what happened throughout that one bit. I also see the group is rather volatile and will start arguing within moments. That ought to be interesting whenever either of them meet up!

I must say I kinda expected Eevee here, but what you did will end up better in the long run, as it seems you plan to merge the Anime's first season and Yellow Version. Plus, we never know what'll happen along the way. Having Damien battle Ash instead was also surprising, and I know it'll build up for future events. Same for Ellen getting Bulbasaur, at least for me.

All in all, this was an interesting read. I'll try to keep up with this, but I won't promise anything, since this is not really my kind of story. But this is also the kind of change of pace I enjoy, so I hope you can keep it up! I'll try to read as much as possible!

[Zerodius]

Why there are no more reviews for this fic is anyone's guess.

I mean... this is a fic involving Ash and Pikachu that is actually interesting. How many of these can be found on this forum let alone any forum?

Now for the fic itself...

This actually very interesting. I liked the blend of anime and games. It's pulled off very gracefully, making the characters seem familiar yet different enough for it to have its own style, a bit like in your Johto parody fic except serious. I liked the Pikachu scene and I liked the inclusions of Ellen and Damien.

If I'm right, Ellen is meant to be the Fire Red/Leaf Green girl playable character, right?

Anyway... I look forward to seeing the next chapters!

Have a nice day!

[Iota]

Loving this from the get go. As with Orion-Sama, I was expecting Eevee, but I'm glad in a way that you followed the Animé in that respect.

Ellen is a nice addition, and she seems like an interesting character. I love how Damien is going, he seems so...obnoxious. Gary sounds very similar to his actual character, which is good. Ash is also great, and I loved the way he caught Pikachu.

I'm going to stick around and see how this goes. I can't wait to see who travels with each other, if any do. I'm waiting to see if Misty and Brock are included as companions.

Keep up the good work.

Iota

[Air Dragon]

Well, it's about time we saw a new journeyfic that was more than a paragraph long first post... LOL.

This was a great start, Ash seems none too skilled at professional NES game playing. Either that or the NES became obsolete due to excessive easiness at wining their games.

Well, that's all i have the time here for now. Keep it running!

L@er!

[Sike Saner]

I liked that you explained how a Pikachu became available as a starter. As for the four young trainers featured in this story, what I find most interesting about them is the way that each of them has their own personal idea of what constitutes a good Pokémon training method.

I'll be back for more. ^^

[Irin]

Huh. I don't know.

I mean this is definitely a different combination of elements. But it's still made of the same elements, most of which have already been combined a few times. I already know what Ash's mother will say, or that he ends up with Pikachu, and once you say the boy is Damien I already know he'll be a jerk and get the charmander. I even know what's going to happening in later chapters with him. The story ends up being really plodding, since the long chapter just means you're taking a long time covering things I've read before and already expected would happen.

A lot of your speech tags aren't that fitting, either (I guess it's hard to avoid repetition when you've got so many characters, but, their dialogue doesn't need to be quite that wandering in the first place, and a bit of repetition would be preferable to the lengths you're going to avoid it.) Also, uh, what's up with the pokemon descriptions? They seem totally reversed. Bulbasaur is the best early one, charmander the weakest (that also needed a ton of exp, it didn't grow fast at all! Bulbasaur was the one that grows fast, and it also evolves several levels earlier.)

[Araleon]

Hmm... This is a good fic so far!! Yay! I hope you continue. Hmm... Damien... Is he the trainer from the anim with the Charmander who we all know what happened? That''d be cool... Will he travel with Ellen? If so, will he get a Bulbasaur and Squirtle still? I hav so many questions waiting to be answered in your fic, so I can't wait for the rest!!

Araleon

[CrystalSaurTower]

Woah. A fic based off Yellow that I actually like!

I thought this chapter was really interesting to read, seeing as how most trainer fics start out with some sort of dark or climatic chapter 1/prolouge *guilty*. I really wasn't expecting the whole anime crossover, but you managed to do it really well on capturing Ash's and Gary's younger canon personalities. Ellen and Damien seem like really unique, typical *gasp* ten year old trainers starting out, it's made me interested on seeing how they'll develop.

Your writing can feel sort of rigid sometimes, though. Like with the "that peice of news was enough to make Ash smile again" could've been changed to a more casual tag, as with some others like Irin said. That could just be your writing style, though, so if it is I'll probably have to read a few more chapters to get a feel for it. Your description of Pikachu seemed pretty basic--"a small, yellow pokemon" would've been easier easier to visualize as something like "a small, yellow rodent" or something similar, since the word pokemon is alot less vauge than our various classifications of animals. The human descriptions were okay, though you might want to use more descriptive words than just red, yellow, and such, since it just sounds a little bland after I hear repition of the basic, primary colors.

I was totally expecting Gary to fight Ash at the leave, but Damien was a nice suprise. I think you've really melded the two canons together well, and I hope you keep it up.

[Seijiro Mafuné]

Thank you all very much for your reviews. I appreciate them, and I suppose I will answer some of the questions now.

*Orion*: Thanks for reading. I’m glad you like the way I combined them, given how both are rather crucial for me to set up, even though I will try to avoid making this too similar to ‘Pokémon Johto – The Funne Version!!!’. The reason behind those two being added is actually obvious, if you ask me… and I am glad that you think my writing is not dragging on; I’m trying to make sure it doesn’t, but it’s rather hard. As for Gary… what makes you say that? There was an actual reason why I wrote his scene that way. And, well, I’ll try to keep your attention in, seeing as how I know how you don’t favor stories starring Ash very much.

Zerodius: Thanks for reading, and also for calling my fic interesting; I really appreciate such a compliment coming from you. Thank you for appreciating the way I write, as well, regarding the blending of both universes, and also the characters involved. However, Ellen is not the Fire Red/Leaf Green Versions female playable character. I apologize if that disappoints you, but I would like to point out that Ellen is actually the character from the first season opening, and her description came from there. At any rate, you’ll probably enjoy this next chapter. Hopefully.

Iota: Thanks for reading. As stated, I would like to point out that your statement is somewhat empty, if you reread the chapter properly. Thank you for finding my manner of writing the characters as spot-on as I could do; most of this comes from actual memory rather than from watching the episodes or playing the games once more, which will affect the way this comes out. As for the Gym Leaders… I believe their personalities will be more enjoyable, this time around, than what most expect. I will do my best to keep up the quality as high as possible.

Air Dragon: Thanks for reading. For your information, Ash is, indeed, rather poor at playing; on the other hand, he had just started the game, or, at least, this stage. It’s a pity your review is so short, however.

Sike Saner: Thanks for reading. I’m glad that you liked the way this fic is written; it’s quite an encouragement. The fact that all the trainers are coming as lively as I tried to pass them is quite a relief, as I am trying to write them as close to canon as possible without making the characters act like precise copies. Differences will probably start appearing soon, at any rate.

Irin: Thanks for reading, on all counts. Even though you didn’t like it and felt it was too predictable, simply because of the fact that it is based on the already released stories on the animé and the games. However, while I can’t force you to like it, I would like to say that, essentially, just because you think you can predict how the story will go, then I will gladly disappoint you. The only confirmed point is that Ash will become Champion after earning eight Badges. If you think things will be like what you’ve seen before, however…

Araleon: Thanks for reading. I will try to continue the fic as much as possible, but with so many fics to juggle, I will not be able to work on this constantly, unlike other authors. To answer your question, yes and no. As for whether he’ll travel with Ellen, you will see soon; on this chapter, to be exact. And who knows? It’s quite an interesting story, what I’m trying to write.

CrystalSaurTower: Thanks for reading, though I can’t see how many Yellow fics there actually are. And yes, storyline-wise, this will be more like Yellow, but with the animé supplying any plot points or characters I may need. As for my writing style, it is as such, and I may take such comments in mind. As for Pikachu’s description… please tell me what are his species’ similarities to a rodent. And frankly, referring to something with ‘fancy’ colors tends to be unnerving, especially if it isn’t the precise color you wanted. Even so, thank you for the compliments.

With this, I would like to ask you all to read the following chapter and enjoy.

Pokémon: Thunder Yellow
Third in the Pokémon Kanto Version Series

Chapter Two: Rival Showdown

“If you even manage to win, I’ll consider it!” Damien mocked, before throwing his own Pokéball forward, releasing his own Pokémon. “Charmander, go!”

In front of Damien landed a rather small Pokémon, completely covered in red scales, with a yellowish belly and underside. Standing on both hind legs, it had claws on all four paws, though the ones in his upper paws looked sharper than the feet’s. The lizard-like being had a long, swishing tail, with a continuously-burning flame at the tip, and it had a funny-looking face with two nostrils, large eyes, and a mouth filled with sharp teeth.

“Charmander, char!” it cried out, in a masculine voice. Ash smirked, as he saw it, before twisting his cap backwards.

“Interesting… well, time to prove my best! Pikachu, go!” he replied, doing the same as Damien. From his odd-looking Pokéball came out a familiar sight to him, yet unfamiliar to most of the others; a small and yellow Pokémon. The Pokémon blinked, for a few seconds, as he took in his surroundings. “Are you ready, Pikachu?” Ash asked, and the Pokémon turned towards him, surprised.

“Pika! Pikaka pikapika chu?” he stammered, all confused. Ash frowned; that hadn’t sounded like it was ready for battle, which surprised him. Weren’t Pokémon all raring for battle the moment you caught them and you could order them at will and want?

Meanwhile, Damien smirked. “A Pikachu? I thought whatever you got would be stronger… but well, that just means you aren’t completely worth my time. Beating you shouldn’t take too long,” he said, grinning, and Ash grunted, angrily. “Now, Charmander, use Scratch!”

“Char!” the Pokémon replied, running towards Pikachu, claws outstretched. Pikachu turned around, confused, and saw the oncoming Charmander.

“Dodge it to the left!” Ash commanded, but the electric mouse Pokémon, instead, got on all four legs and ran to the right, making everyone stare at him in surprise. However, despite his speed, Charmander managed to reach it quickly enough. With a growl, it scratched Pikachu’s side, making the Pokémon cry out in pain.

“Wow, that Pokémon must be really stupid, if it can’t even obey its trainer properly!” Damien taunted, as he watched Pikachu turn around, wincing. It looked like he had a rather nasty wound, and now he was pretty angry, with sparks crackling from its cheeks.

“Don’t insult him!” Ash snapped back, looking at his Pokémon. “Come on, get ready to fight!” he said, trying to think what move it was that the Pikachu had used. Damien let out a snicker.

“You don’t even know what moves Pikachu has? Man, that’s pretty pathetic…” he told Ash, who was glaring at him again. “Charmander, use Scratch again!”

As she watched the Fire-type barely miss its move, Ellen bit her lip, worried. “Do you think he can do it, Gary?” she asked the boy, surprising him. “Pikachu isn’t a regular starter, and Ash probably doesn’t even know what kinds of moves it can use… while we, having actually expected these Pokémon, know what moves they can do. Things aren’t in his favor…”

“Ash’s letting it get to him,” he replied, after a moment. “He doesn’t have a quick means of figuring out what moves a Pokémon has… none of us does, and it’s only because we’ve studied so much and have memorized the moves that our starters would have that we don’t need to worry. But Ash… he got the bad luck of getting a Pikachu for a starter. Not an average Pokémon, not expected for him to have this fast… no wonder he can’t think of a move to order.” However, Ellen could see he had something different in mind, as he seemed to be silent now.

“What is it?” she asked, and Gary shook his head.

“No… I’m just wondering why the Pikachu disobeyed him, like Damien pointed out,” he told her, somewhat evasively. “You’re paying attention to it, aren’t you? Most Pokémon, after being caught, are easily controlled… I wonder what happened.”

“Oh…” she muttered, before focusing on the battle again. Pikachu was still avoiding the attacks, though he had been taking some hits, yet he hadn’t quite managed to attack yet for some reason. His cheeks were sparkling with electricity, still, and it seemed it was trying to focus onto something; however, the Charmander was making this almost impossible, it seemed.

“Pikachu, please… just attack, do something…” Ash pleaded, as he watched him, already starting to lose hope. He had tried to make the Pokémon attack several times, already, with the results being always the same; the Pokémon never attacked, only tried to do something and got either attacked by Charmander or had to dodge, losing focus. “Please… just do something… anything… just do what you did in the Ranch and fight… that’s all I’m asking for…”

Nothing was happening… until Charmander, finally, knocked Pikachu down. While Pikachu struggled to get up, his opponent seemed proud of itself, and so did its trainer. “Hah! Guess this is it… time for my first victory, sweet as it will be!” Damien laughed, content, and everyone was watching them. The outcome seemed obvious, now, as he readied his next order, and Ash felt like everything would be over, now. His dreams, his hopes, the chance of becoming a champion… all over, just because he couldn’t cut it as a trainer… because he didn’t understand his Pokémon… because he was a failure…

“No… NO! PIKACHU, PLEASE, THUNDERSHOCK NOW!” he cried out, unconsciously remembering one of the Electric moves he had actually remembered Pikachus having, in his panic. The boy had closed his eyes, already fearing for the worst, and so he didn’t see what happened, immediately later.

Pikachu’s eyes suddenly shot open, his ears twitched, and he looked at Charmander. “Charmander, Scratch again!” Damien had just ordered, and the Pokémon had begun raising its right arm, ready to perform its last attack.

An attack that wouldn’t come.

At that moment, his cheeks crackled with electricity before he opened his mouth. “Piiiikaaaa…CHUUUUUUUUU!!!” he cried out, covering himself in electricity and expanding the field around his body, before it lashed at its target. Charmander screamed in pain, before taking a few steps back, seriously hurt by the attack. To make things worse, all of a sudden, the Pokémon had fallen down on one of its small knees, and the sound of an electric current had rang through the air, still, despite the move having stopped a few seconds ago.

“N-no way!” Damien cried out, eyes wide, and both Ellen and Gary were now staring at the Pokémon, taken aback by the display of power, as well.

“Did… did that Pikachu just do what I think it did?!” the brown-haired girl whispered, surprised. Gary didn’t reply, and just let his jaw hang, unable to think of an explanation for that. If the flame in Charmander’s tail indicated anything, then that move had been so strong, it had been hurt severely… and Pikachu grinned, somewhat, as he stood back up. It wasn’t an evil grin, but rather… he seemed content with finally paralyzing the Charmander that had annoyed him so.

Having finally opened his eyes, Ash took a moment to take in what had happened… and well, apparently he was winning somehow. That was great! Even though he hadn’t quite seen what he did, he was sure that had been Thundershock, and the way the Pokémon were standing, he was obviously with the advantage now! Why else had Charmander stopped, after all?

“Yes!” he cried out, cheerfully! “Now, Pikachu, use-”

“CHUUUUUUU!!!” Pikachu interrupted, already performing the attack before Ash could finish his command, and Charmander gave one last cry. Hurt as it was, however, it quickly had fainted, falling down to the ground on its face.

“D-dang… that wasn’t supposed to happen!” Damien grunted, nervous now. “I lost to him, of all people… it has to have been this stupid thing’s fault! I chose the wrong Pokémon!”

“Why, because you lost, Damien?” Ash taunted, smirking, as he stood on his side. “Well, that has to prove to you that I’m not as weak as you thought I was, right?”

“Like it does!” the blue-haired boy snapped back, shocking Ash with his roughness. “This doesn’t prove anything! You just got lucky, Ash… you still suck at battling! If you hadn’t given that order then and there, I would definitely have won! You had better wait, I’m going to grow much stronger and find stronger Pokémon! Then I’ll trounce you!”

“Enough, Damien,” Gary interrupted them, surprising everyone. “You lost, Ash won. You should try and make those words of yours come true, rather than keep making these boasts you can’t back. It’s really annoying, you know?”

“Gary? You’re… you’re actually defending him?!” Damien asked, stunned, and the brown-haired boy shook his head, smirking.

“No, Damien. Not really. I just can admit that Ash is competent enough to make the best with a Pokémon he has little training with and who he only now started training,” he said, closing his eyes and turning his head away. “Of course, that doesn’t mean anything when compared to a real training genius like me, but I believe this won’t be an issue any soon.”

“Hey, is that a crack?!” Ash cried out, then. “Come on, I’m ready for another battle!” Gary took one look at him, before shaking his head.

“And have a natural disadvantage? Come on, Ashy-boy, even you can’t be that dumb… your Pokémon is weakened, while mine is at full strength… it can’t be that hard for you to guess that I’ll cream you no matter what Pokémon I used, right?” he asked, and Ash sweatdropped, after a moment.

“Guess that’s true…” he admitted, lamely, while Damien finally recalled his Pokémon. He then turned towards Ash, glaring at the boy intensely.

“I’m telling you just this once, Ash! I’m going to beat you the next time we meet, and you know it!” he told the boy, before pausing for a moment. “Oh, and your hat-twisting thing is stupid!” he added, running away. Ash pouted, then.

“…it’s not! It’s definitely cool! I saw it on TV!” he snapped back, angrily, to the surprise of the others. Gary just shook his head, then, as he watched that.

“Man, Damien’s a sore loser, definitely…” he commented, before looking back at the others. “Well, if you guys don’t mind, I’m going to Viridian City; I want to catch some Pokémon before I face my first Gym.”

“You’re leaving, already?” Ellen asked, and he nodded. “But… we just got our Pokémon, and… and we were going to travel together, weren’t we? I mean…”

“Nah… it doesn’t work that way, Ellen,” Gary replied, smiling despite that. “Really, if I traveled with Ash, I’d let him know about my fighting style, and I would know of his, so it wouldn’t be really fair for when we finally face each other, right?”

“…you actually want to fight against Ash?” she asked, somewhat in disbelief, and he nodded. “But…”

“It’s okay, Ellen,” Ash interrupted, grinning now. “We’re both aiming to become the Champion, after all… and since only one person can become the Champion, then we’re going to have to face each other, one day. It might be better if we train separately, overall.”

“I knew you’d get it, Ash,” Gary replied, turning away now. “Well, Ellen, Gramps, Ashy-boy? Smell you later!” And, with that, he started walking away.

After Gary had left, Ash turned towards Ellen. “Well… I’m going back to my house to talk to my mom. You think you can handle yourself? Traveling is pretty dangerous, you know,” he asked her, and the girl looked disappointed, for a moment.

“Um, Ash…” she began, then. “I… kinda want to tell you something. Can you meet me at the town exit, close to those large trees?” After a moment of thought, the boy nodded.

“Sure. Just let me recall my Pikachu and go back to my house… it shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes, I promise!” he told her, before taking out the Pokéball he had, again. “Pikachu, return!”

To their surprise, Pikachu dodged the red beam sent out by the Pokéball, glaring at Ash. “Pikapika! Pika pikachu, chu pikapika!” he snapped back, and Ash blinked.

“It doesn’t want to return to its Pokéball?” he asked, and Ellen crouched, looking at Pikachu closer.

“How strange… not to mention the fact that it doesn’t seem like it likes you,” she added, the Pokémon taking a few steps back. At this moment, Oak walked nearby, and frowned.

“I see… so it seems this Pokémon doesn’t like to stay inside its Pokéball…” he commented, rubbing his chin. As both kids had turned towards him now, they hadn’t noticed the gasp the Pikachu let out. “I heard it happens to a few Pokémon. For some reason, this only happens if they are fairly spirited.”

“Well… what about it not liking me?” Ash asked, somewhat confused by this. Ellen looked curious, as well, seeing as how she didn’t interrupt them, while Pikachu stood there, as if struggling between running away and staying there.

“Not every Pokémon instinctively likes humans, Ash,” Oak told him, lowering his arm. “It’s possible that this Pikachu might even dislike you for catching it and forcing it to battle where it got wounded. Maybe if you try and gain its trust, it’ll start liking you more and you won’t have such problems handling it.”

“I see…” Ash replied, before looking back at the still nervous-looking Pikachu. As he tried to move closer, he heard the crackling of electricity, and stopped at once. “…I guess it won’t be that easy…”

“Well… if you want some help…” Oak began, before giving him a strange-looking collar. “Just release it over your Pikachu, Ash.”

After looking it over, Ash did so, and the collar attached itself to Pikachu, with a loud clack. The Pokémon struggled to get it off him, with difficulty, only to fail as his small thumbless fingers were pretty useless. The Pokémon grunted, but all it could do was hurt itself further, rather painfully.

“Um… is that supposed to be alright?” the young boy asked, somewhat confused. Oak nodded, smiling.

“Of course it is! Your Pikachu won’t be feeling hurt at all!” he told him, before Ellen got up again.

“Hah! Thanks for helping him, professor Oak!” she replied, before looking at Ash. “Well… I guess I’ll meet up with you later, then…” she said, smiling, before running off. “Bye, Ash!”

“Uh, bye, Ellen…” Ash replied, somewhat disappointedly. Just before he could leave, however, he felt Professor Oak’s strong arm hold him, and he turned around. “Professor Oak? What is it?”

“Ash… I just remembered something,” he said, before showing him a large box, wrapped in brown paper that had been taped together with duct tape. “The Pokémon Mart in Viridian City has made a mistake in their latest delivery to me, see, and I need to give it back… so, well, could you please stop by there and leave it there for me? I’d appreciate it.”

After a moment, Ash nodded, as he took the package and placed it inside his backpack. “Sure! It’s not like I wasn’t going to stop there, anyway!” he said, before noticing that there was a leash attached to the collar. “Let me guess… so I can drag him around?” The elderly professor nodded, in response.

“Yes, Ash. It will probably be of more use for you,” he replied, and Ash stared at it, for a moment.

Then, reluctantly, he began dragging Pikachu, who was struggling to get out of the collar and away from him, and headed back to his house. Now that he had the package on his backpack, it was weighing rather more heavily than before, and he was grunting with some difficulty. “B-bye, professor…” he managed to let out, during the walk, rather painfully now.

Just as he stopped by his house, tired and reclining against the mailbox, his mother opened the door. “Ash?!” she called for him, and the boy looked in her direction, breathing with some difficulty. “Oh, it’s you, Ash!”

“Hi, mom…” the boy replied, and Pikachu looked towards that direction, blinking for a moment. The nice woman that was coming closer to them didn’t seem like a threat, despite being so tall, but that was mostly because she lacked that feeling the other humans he had seen had. Of course, he tried to stay away, but with the leash that wasn’t much.

“So, did you get your first Pokémon from professor Oak?” she asked, and Ash nodded, motioning towards Pikachu. “Aww, it’s cute!” she added, after looking at it.

“Yeah… it’s a Pikachu,” the boy admitted, before noticing his mother had turned towards him, now frowning rather severely. “Um… mom?”

“Ash, you look awful! You’re so messy and dirty, you can’t go on your first journey like this!” she told him, before grabbing his free wrist, and dragging him away from the mailbox (which read ‘Ketchum House’). Pikachu was dragged inside as usual, struggling like before, but he wasn’t able to do much to get out of his trainer’s grasp.

Once inside, she pointed to the stairs. “Now, Ash, you go and take a good shower, while I’ll be washing your clothes for you,” she told him, and the boy grumbled, before starting to go towards his room. His mother followed, closely, obviously intending to get things ready for him as soon as possible.

And Pikachu stayed on the main room, staring at them, ignored for now. After a few moments, the electric mouse Pokémon let out a squeal of joy. “Chaaa~!” he said, before running off. He sure was hungry! Time to look for some food…

Going into the kitchen (though he didn’t know that) led to a productive search; the smell of food was noticeable, and Pikachu was happy to smell it. “Piiika!” Now if only he could find it! He hadn’t eaten ever since he had found that weird-looking forest, closed with those large things that stopped the larger Pokémon from coming around, and that had been early that day. So, if he didn’t eat anything soon, he’d probably starve…

Just then, as he followed the smell, he saw a rather large bowl of something on the counter. “Pika?” That something smelled rather nice, considering how strong it was, and it was probably vegetables… his favorite! “PIKA! Pikapika!” The Pikachu tried to look for a way to climb that high up, seeing as how there wasn’t anything he could do…

…wait, there was still that thing on his neck… and the Pokémon looked at it, rather suspicious. “Pi…” With a frown, he stood on both hind legs, a rather unusual position for him, and picked it up with both hands as well as he could. “Piiiika…” Raising it straight up, he noticed it fit one of those weird knobs on the counter’s walls…

Pushing it against the knob, he then tried to climb it, failing somewhat; the Pokémon had seen vines before, and how Grass-types used their own to either pull or push things, but he didn’t understand the principle behind it. “Chuuuuu…” he grunted, during his struggle. After some tugging, however, the sound of something moving was heard, then. “Pi?”

Looking up, the Pokémon saw that the knob had been pulled back, and so had the drawer attached to it; not very much, but enough that he had noticed. “Pika?” he muttered, before looking ahead of him. There were three other knobs there, as well… “Pikaaa….” After a moment, the Pokémon had grasped the knob, as well as he could, and began pulling back, as hard as he could, even using his teeth to try and press against the wood.

After several moments of struggle, it seemed like he hadn’t done anything; the knob seemed to be on the same place as before, and he couldn’t have moved that much… “Pika… pika…” the Pokémon panted, exhausted, and looked up. The bowl was still there, containing the delicious meal… “Piika!” he grunted, unwilling to give up. He was hungry! He needed to eat now!

With a grunt, the Pokémon began pulling again, hard. It almost felt like his arms were going to break… but eventually, he felt the thing moving, and smiled tiredly. “Chaaa~…” he breathed, with some difficulty, before looking over the thing. Apparently, the drawer had moved only enough that Pikachu could grab onto the tip and raise himself up. It wasn’t much, but he had managed to grasp onto the inside of the drawer, which was enough for him to have support. “Pika?”

After climbing it with some difficulty, which included trying to stick to the drawer above as well as he could, Pikachu tried to pull the next one back, as well. However, much as he tried, it wasn’t working out very well, at all; the Pokémon had apparently forgotten that it didn’t have enough of a grasp to do the same, and so Pikachu lost his balance and began tilting back, nervously. “Pika! PikapikapikapikapikapikaPI-!” he cried out, nervous, before managing to grab onto the drawer in front of him, letting out a breath. “-kaaa…”

Then, to his surprise, as he slouched, Pikachu was pushing the drawer further back, giving himself a better standing than the one he was currently on. “Piiiii?!” That surprised the Pokémon; had he actually managed to do that? “Piiikaaa?” he added, as he fell down on the soft tablecloths, looking up. He still couldn’t climb onto the upper drawers, but this was progress… or so he thought.

“Piiika… pika pikaka, chu pika,” he said, standing up again. If he could pull another of those things, he’d probably get enough height to jump all the way up, but right now it’d be difficult. Still, if anything, this Pikachu was quite the decided Pokémon, that wouldn’t give up on this.

So, it was like that that the Pokémon began trying again, pulling onto the next drawer the best he could…

…

Ash sighed, as he finally walked downstairs. He was wearing a clean set of clothes, and his backpack felt slightly heavier now that he had been given a Potion by his mother, but the entire chore had been quite a bother. Did he really need to take another shower? He had already had one earlier that day!

Of course, because he hadn’t had breakfast earlier, he was now feeling hungry. He hadn’t been paying much attention to his surroundings, as he headed towards the kitchen, and so he hadn’t noticed that his Pokémon wasn’t in that room anymore. Getting inside, he was just about to walk towards the fridge-

*CRASH*

-when something fell down, painfully loud. As he turned towards the source of the sound, he saw Pikachu standing on the counter, looking down with some worry, as the bowl of vegetables had fallen down.

“Piiikaaa…” the Pokémon groaned, before noticing Ash had looked at him. “Pika!”

“Pikachu, what are you doing there!?” the boy asked, walking closer to him. “It’s dangerous! You could get hurt!”

“Pii…” Pikachu growled, as he got on all fours, glaring at him. “Pika! Pikapika pika!”

To that, Ash could only stare, confused. “…what are you saying, anyway? I can’t understand a word of that!”

However, Pikachu wasn’t exactly responsive, jumping off the counter and trying to attack Ash. The boy managed to avoid the tackle, and as the Pokémon fell, he saw the leash moving behind him, and grasped on it instinctively. Pikachu landed, trying to run off… only to feel the leash tug against him, making the Pokémon gasp. “Pi-! Pipipipipipiii!” he grunted, trying to get away, his paws scraping the floor repeatedly.

“Hey, you stop that, okay?!” Ash ordered, trying to pull back with some difficulty; who knew Pikachu was that strong? “You’re the one who shouldn’t have gotten on there! What if you had gotten hurt, huh?”

“Pi!” Pikachu replied, turning his head arrogantly. This only annoyed Ash further.

“Why, you-”

“Ash?” his mother interrupted, and the two turned towards her. “Um… I guess it’s time you should leave, isn’t it?”

“…yeah…” the boy admitted, before walking towards her, still dragging Pikachu with him. The two of them hugged tightly for several seconds, before his mother reluctantly released him.

“Now… you have fun with your Pokémon, alright?” she asked, rubbing one of her eyes. “You’ll be away for the rest of the year, I’m guessing… can you at least call me whenever you get to a new city?”

“Yeah… I’ll do that, mom,” he replied, before walking off, dragging Pikachu with him. The young woman followed him to the door, and waved him off as he left the house. “I’ll make sure to bring you some souvenirs!” he added, and his mother smiled, simply.

“Good luck, Ash!” she added, as she watched him run off, Pikachu forced to do the same so that his neck wouldn’t be strained. After a few moments, her smile diminished. “I wonder… will he follow in his footsteps, as well?” she wondered, quietly.

It didn’t take long for Ash and Pikachu to arrive at the town exit, which was a small street, leading to a rundown path that served as the connection between this and the next city. By the sides, serving as gates of sorts, were two huge trees, both on size and width. These trees were among the town’s few landmarks, with kids always coming to them and trying to climb on the branches. It was easy, in a way; the trees had several strong branches that, being too heavy, tended to droop down. Ellen was sitting on one of them, watching the path from above.

“Hey, Ellen!” Ash called, and the girl looked in his direction, before smiling.

“Hi, Ash,” she replied, waving at him from her position. “You… you did come, after all…”

“Yeah… why wouldn’t I?” he asked, coming closer to her. “You asked me to, right?”

“…I… suppose I did,” she said, her face slowly becoming red. “Ash… do you like me?”

“Eh?” the boy replied, taken aback. “W-what do you mean? I mean, er…” he corrected himself, as the expression in Ellen’s face seemed to demand a positive answer. “I do find you cute, and there’s the fact that you’ve always been helpful to me… you’ve always been a good friend, too, so…”

“…is that it?” she asked, then, surprising him. “Do you… only think of me as a friend?”

“N-not at all!” Ash stammered, as he heard that. “I really like you a lot, you’re my best friend, very pretty, and…” However, as he went on, he noticed that Ellen didn’t seem to be reacting like he thought she should. She wasn’t smiling or seemed happy that he cared about her as much as she cared about him…

“…stop it.”

Her response was sudden, and Ash could only stare at her as she dropped down from the tree, landing in front of him. “Ash… I know I’ve been helping you out for so long, but… everyone keeps thinking that I’m doing this because I like you… you know, in the same way that you do,” she told him, rather calmly. Even so, it seemed like she was holding something back. “But… that’s simply not true. You’re my friend, we’ve been friends since we were kids… but Ash, you need to grow up on your own, and I can’t stay with you forever. And Gary and Damien think that, because I like you, that our friendship is ruined… I never wanted that to happen! I wanted us to be friends, and not to have these stupid arguments… we’re just ten, even!”

After a moment, she sighed. “Ash… please, just stop thinking about me that way, okay? We’re friends… that’s all we have to be. Can… can you do that? For me?” she asked, and the boy simply nodded, not sure what to say. After that, she smiled in response. “Alright… I’ll hold you to that. We’ll meet up later, then, alright?” she added, before running off. “Bye, Ash!”

Ash just stood there, for a few moments, as the wind blew. Pikachu was trying to take a nap, for now, curled up into a ball of sorts. Eventually, he managed to figure out something to say.

“…what just happened here?” he muttered, confused.

After several moments, he began tugging onto Pikachu’s leash, trying to get the Pokémon to follow him. Pikachu grumbled for a moment, before letting out an electrical discharge that surged through the rope and all the way to the boy. His painful screams were rather loud, and he ended up crashing to the ground, after it was over. “…owww…” he uttered, in pain. Pikachu woke up only a moment later, and glanced at him.

After seeing the state of the boy, he started to laugh, rolling onto the ground.

“Why, you!” Ash cursed, before getting up quickly. Then, he began tugging onto the leash again, but this time, he was also getting his distance. “Stop being so annoying! I’m going to be a Pokémon Master, and you’re going to help me no matter what!”

To that kind of tug, Pikachu had little choice but to obey, given how the alternative was likely for his neck to snap from the strength. With that, he began to walk as well, reluctantly, and Ash smiled.

“Yeah… that’s right, Pikachu,” he said, before walking ahead as well. “Well, we’re going to become the best of the best, don’t you think?”

“Pika,” Pikachu grumbled, in response. Ash ignored him, however, and instead continued thinking about his dreams of being the world’s greatest Pokémon Master. And, thus, did he leave Pallet Town, messy, fantasizing, and dragging his only Pokémon, who was absolutely not interested in following him and wanted to get away as quickly as possible.

As they walked, they found the road to be rather plain, other than a few cliffs and rough turns. It seemed like Pallet Town had been built on pretty low ground, lower than the norm, what with so much climbing to be done and how the fact that the path was heading uphill. There wasn’t much of interesting to note, however.

This soon changed, however, as they came across a young man, who seemed a bit lost. Ash stopped in front of him, confused. “Um… excuse me, mister, but… who are you?” he asked, and the man blinked, for a moment.

“Oh! I’m sorry, boy, but I have something important to do right now! I can’t waste my time talking to a kid!” he said, in a bossy manner. “If only I knew where Pallet Town was…”

“Pallet Town?” Ash repeated, before smiling. “Hah! I came from there!” The man blinked, before showing a face of relief.

“That’s great! Listen, kid, can you take me to that city? I really need to talk to a certain person there…” he explained, and the boy looked slightly uncomfortable.

“Er…” he muttered, before looking back. His hometown wasn’t that far away, overall, and there was the fact that he could easily go back and here again soon, but… he had just started, too, and he wanted to find some Pokémon to practice against… However, the man’s smile was enough to stop him. “Fine… just come along, okay?” he replied, turning around and dragging Pikachu with him. The man followed, as well.

…

Damien grumbled, as he walked through the city. He had gotten lucky, what with no wild Pokémon trying to assault him, and he had managed to heal his Charmander without much problem. Of course, the fact that he had lost to Ash – Ash, of all people! – was gnawing at him, now.

“I can’t believe it… that weak loser won with a wild Pokémon! He beat my Charmander… a Pokémon that, by all means, ought to have been able to crush his stupid Pikachu easily! Why have I lost?! He couldn’t even control that stupid thing!” he grumbled, annoyed. His Pokémon was confined to its Pokéball, as usual, and he didn’t think of releasing it yet. It wasn’t as if getting strong Pokémon was easy; otherwise, any random brat could do it, rather than the high amount of newbies with Rattatas and Pidgeys and Magnemites.

And as much as he might be hotheaded, he was never stupid.

He looked at the road ahead of him. The city exit was close by, and he hadn’t needed to go to the Mart; thanks to his family, he was well-stocked. In fact, it was likely that all of them had the basic needs, he figured, before shaking his head.

‘All of us… why did I just think about that?’ he thought, angrily. ‘It’s enough of a bother worrying about just me… if I worry about the others, I’m going to end up like that girl. And frankly, I’d rather not.’

It was thinking like that that he walked away, towards the city exit, not noticing that there was someone watching him. He remained under the watch for several minutes, until he finally was far from sight, and the city was far away. In fact, he had just reached a landmark, when he stopped walking.

The trees that served as the main entrance to Viridian Forest.

Damien spent a few moments watching it, before snorting. “Not very impressive… but they say that rare Pokémon are more easily found on the other side. I just hope that’s true… I need to prepare my team first, before I can challenge the first Gym,” he said, ready to walk inside… until he heard footsteps behind him. “Huh?”

Turning around, he saw a trainer, walking closer. “What do you want?” he asked, and the newcomer looked him over.

“You’ve got quite a mouth on you, don’t you, boy?” he taunted, his face contorting into a nasty smirk. “That’s interesting… seems like kids these days don’t know much about respect.”

“Respect… bah!” was Damien’s response, as he glared at the strange trainer. He was a tall and imposing teen, obviously older than him, and he was wearing casual clothes. While he didn’t seem to be too impressive, there was something in his stance and in the way his eyes stared at him, so coldly, that was unnerving him. “I’ll respect you when I see you doing something impressive! Meanwhile, you had better leave me alone! I’m not interested in dealing with someone like you right now!”

“Oh, is that so?” the trainer asked, keeping his smirk. “Well, that’s a pity… I was going to ask you if you wanted to practice against me, but if you’re going to be rude like that…” At that moment, Damien stopped in his mark, looking at the other teen with some surprise.

“A practice match?” he asked, before fingering his Pokéball. That guy didn’t look like he was any important… and considering how much his loss to Ash stung, he’d rather deal with his anger in a very enjoyable manner. “Fine, a one-on-one. I’m going to kick your butt, loser!”

“Oh, will you?” was the response, as the trainer took out a Pokéball of his own. “We shall see about that…”

…

As Ash finally bade farewell to the older man, he found himself back where he had started… Professor Oak’s Laboratory. In a way, it was something he really hadn’t wanted to do, since it had taken him more time than he had expected it to take, but in the end his conscience and morals had won over his selfishness and here he was again, far earlier than he had expected to return.

Still, Ash decided to keep his mind off it by thinking about the future… more specifically, his future battles. Pokémon trainers needed more than one single Pokémon to guarantee victory, with the average trainer having at least three. This was also the number of Pokémon possessed by most Gym Leaders, he believed, while elite trainers had up to five regular Pokémon. It was always assumed that they possessed more, but the fact that one trainer could only have six Pokémon meant that their sixth Pokémon would be chosen depending on situation, rather than kept permanently.

So, Ash needed at least a few more Pokémon, if he wanted to face a Gym Leader on equal terms. Hopefully they’d be good partners, and strong enough to help; if they were at least better than that Pikachu he had, right now, it’d be great. The aforementioned Pokémon was currently trying to sleep, grunting as he was dragged by his trainer, barely avoiding letting out the electricity it had stored in its body for a while now.

“You know… if you stopped struggling so much and started to follow me like the other Pokémon do, things would be a lot easier for the two of us,” Ash told him, glancing back, as they walked through the streets. Pikachu took only one moment to process that, before turning his head away, arrogantly.

“Pi!” he said, in an annoying tone. Ash glared at him, for a few moments, before grumbling.

“Stupid good-for-nothing Pokémon… stupid thing doesn’t listen to me…” he muttered, under his breath, before going back to dragging Pikachu, who was growing increasingly tired of this as well. “What’s so hard about that? All he had to do is do what I say and everything would work out just fine…”

“Pika!” was the angry response, and Ash noticed that the Pokémon was glaring at him now. “Pika pika, pikachu pika!”

“Oh, what now?” he asked, then, stopping for a moment to turn around and face his Pokémon. “You’re angry? Well, tough luck! You’re my Pokémon now, so you should start obeying me already!”

“Pikapika! Pipi pikachu chu pikapi!” Pikachu replied, shaking his head negatively. “Pikachu chu pikaka pika pika pipika!”

Ash stared at him, for a moment. “…I have no idea what you just said, but it really sounds annoying…” he grumbled, his expression becoming more and more annoyed by the second. “Well, anyway! If you’re not going to follow me like a good Pokémon, then just shut up and stop struggling! I swear, future Pokémon Masters don’t ever get it easy…”

Pikachu kept glaring at the boy, even as he turned around and continued to drag him away. It took only a few more minutes before Ash saw the place they had last stopped, where the lost guy had been looking around, in confusion. There wasn’t much else around, however.

At least, that’s what he saw.

Pikachu had taken to walk, now, only because his feet were starting to hurt from him trying to stay away, but he hadn’t really kept paying attention to the human boy anymore; these surroundings were slightly familiar, if only because he had been through here on the way to the supposedly large food place. Of course, had he known what waited for him once he had arrived, he’d have never come here; it was too much of a bother and a hassle and he had gotten all hurt thanks to that.

Still, the fact that he was paying attention to his surroundings made the difference, for his developed ears caught upon the distant sound of wings flapping faster than Ash did, and he turned in that direction at once. It was hard to see, but the shape was noticeable.

With his eyes widening, Pikachu tried to dash away, as quickly as he could, forgetting about the leash for a moment… something that proved to be the wrong choice; he was unable to go much further than its length allowed, and was soon skitting in place, his paws moving rapidly to no use, while Ash had to struggle to hold onto it.

“H-hey! What’s going on!?” he asked, stunned by the Pokémon’s sudden fear… until he heard a loud cry, coming from above.

As he looked back, he saw that it was a small bird Pokémon, with a pair of angry eyes on its face, ruffled red feathers covering its head and wings, a small and sharp-looking beak with a slight tweak to its curve, and a black body. There were a few red feathers on its tail, as well.

“YRO!” the Pokémon screeched, as it tried to divebomb Pikachu; at this point, the Pokémon pulled one last time, the leash yanking loose from Ash’s hand as the boy fell onto the ground. The sharp claws on its feet barely avoided grasping its prey, and Pikachu did a sharp turn to the left.

“Pika…” the Electric-type muttered, glancing back with one of his eyes. Indeed, it was a Spearow, a rather violent and hotheaded Pokémon who lived in large flocks, with the specie usually attacking those who assaulted a member of their flock. Living in the wild was not easy at all, and there had always been fights for food… and well, it hadn’t been his fault if a Spearow had decided he wanted the same breakfast as him.

In only a moment, Pikachu’s cheeks crackled with electricity, as he turned back to face his opponent. Undoubtedly, this Pokémon was a member of the same flock, but Spearows were usually smart enough to avoid facing Pokémon they were likely to lose to… either this was a strong Spearow or an important one. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t matter much; in only a second, he unleashed his electricity, the Spearow flying back with little hope of escaping the attack…

…but to Pikachu’s surprise, the energy that had been released was too low; in fact, it had barely been enough to reach the Spearow, who broke free easily from the discharge. The Pokémon stayed in the air for a moment, waiting for a second attack… before what seemed to be a smirk came to its beak, before it flapped its wings rapidly.

Ash watched the battle with some surprise, as he stood there, ignored by the Pokémon. Pikachu looked too taken aback to react, as the first attack struck him hard, and the Spearow rose in the air, getting some distance before its next move. As it approached, its opponent tried to use its attack again, but this time it did a quick evade, getting Pikachu on his unprotected side. The Pokémon was flung towards that direction, pained.

Just as the Spearow had turned around, however, Pikachu saw Ash come towards him, fast, getting in-between the Pokémon. “Pi…pika?” he asked, wincing a bit, though Ash didn’t notice it.

“Hey, you!” he told the Spearow, who had paused in the air, confused by this intruder on its fight. “Why are you trying to fight my Pikachu, huh? You think you’re tough, acting like that? Who do you think you are?!”

“Pika…” Pikachu grunted, trying to rise again, slowly. The Pokémon was having a harder time than what should be normal thanks to the collar around his neck, and it seemed like the thing had done something to his electricity-producing powers. “Pikaka, pikachu ka…”

Meanwhile, the Spearow grew tired of hearing the human’s blather, and dived towards its prey. Pikachu had only barely noticed that, when he kicked onto the ground, giving himself a burst of speed… and then, he realized that the Spearow had realized that, already following him, a black shadow over him-

“OW!!!”

The scream of pain that rang over the plain was not Pikachu’s, surprisingly, especially to the Pokémon who had thought it was over. He skid to a halt, turning around… and saw Ash, trying to keep the Spearow away, one of his arms showing a surprisingly deep gash.

“You… you’re not going to get Pikachu…” the boy said, pushing the Pokémon away as well as he could; not very well, but he had managed to attract the Pokémon’s attention completely for now, which was enough time for his Pokémon to do something.

“Pika?” Pikachu muttered, as he watched the scene. “Pika… pika pikachu pi? Pika, kapikachu pika?”

Ash wasn’t sure why he said what he did, on that moment, but it had been in response to what Pikachu had asked, regardless. “I’m not letting anyone attack one of my Pokémon… one of my partners… just like that! Especially not when he can’t even defend himself!” he said, surprising the Pokémon.

However, at this moment, the Spearow managed to score a direct hit, making Ash fall back on the ground painfully. “OWWWW!” he cried out, eyes closed for a moment. Pikachu gasped, then.

“Pika! Pikachu, pikaka?” he asked, running towards Ash quickly, the young boy opening one of his eyes slowly.

“S-sorry, Pikachu…” he apologized, smiling in a lame manner. “I guess I couldn’t do much…” With that, one of his hands pressed against the Pokémon’s, without being shocked by him… and the hand pressed over the collar’s release button.

With a clack, the electronic device opened up, falling off Pikachu’s body and onto Ash. The boy gasped, as he felt the weight, and Pikachu’s eyes widened… before he turned around. The Spearow was coming closer, so closer…

The Pokémon didn’t hesitate; with a hop, he moved towards his opponent, cheeks crackling and sparkling with his unrestrained energy. The look in his eyes, at that moment, took the Flying-type aback…

“Piiiikaaaa…CHUUUUUUUUU!!!”

With a cry, Pikachu unleashed the several hundred volts straight onto the Spearow, who was at point-blank range. It intercepted the Pokémon before it could have touched Pikachu, making it scream in pain and get sent back by the following headbutt, the two Pokémon landing on the ground – Pikachu on all four legs, the same look in his face, and the Spearow on its back, painfully.

“Spearow…” it muttered, before falling unconscious. Pikachu panted, for a few seconds… before losing his balance, starting to fall down. Rather than the cold ground, however, what he felt was a different feeling… two soft hands, grasping him from the sides.

“Pikachu… are you okay?” Ash asked, getting down rather than pulling the Pokémon up. Pikachu looked at him, clearly annoyed, for a few moments… before letting out a breath.

“Chaaa~…” he sighed, his eyes closed for a moment, before he opened them again. His expression was a lot less angry, now. “Pika… pikapika, pika pika pi. Pikachu pi. Pika?” he said, then, and Ash shrugged.

“Well… if you’re okay, I guess you are. And… sorry about the way I was treating you, by the way,” he apologized. “I’m Ash. Would you… would you like to be my partner?”

Pikachu stared at him, for a few moments… before closing his eyes and smiling, all of a sudden. “Pika! Pika pika… Pikapi pika! Pikachu!”

Seeing as how the Pokémon was very happy right now, for once, Ash decided not to complain about it. “Well… alright, then. We should probably get going… I don’t think Viridian City is going to wait for us. Do you feel like you can walk there?” he asked, and the Pokémon nodded, before jumping off his hands.

“Pika! Pikapi, pikapika ka!” was the response, before Pikachu started to run off. Ash ran as well, now.

“Hey, wait up! You can’t go there without me, I don’t think you even know where it is!” he said, but even then, both of them were laughing, as they ran.

…!

So, I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter. I will hopefully bring more to you soon… after some updates.

As for the next chapter hint, hn… on the next chapter, we shall see Ash and Pikachu in… a house.

What’s wrong? Do you not like cryptic advice coming from me? I apologize for the inconvenience.

[Araleon]

I liked this chapter, but Ellen confused the heck outa me. I thought she liked him. She sure acted like it. And poor Ash had no idea what she was saying. Nice chapter, see ya next chappie!

Araleon

[Air Dragon]

@Araleon: *must be a dude* If the italicised text was you, then what do you expect. Girls are generally a confusing topic, heck, I don't understand them, and I'm twenty-flipping-ONE (going on 22 next month).

@Seijiro Mafune: Well, now that i'm a legit reviewer (again), i can finally slam you with an appropriately long review. The only reason i have for not doing so last time was that there wasn't really much to complain about.

Grammar: In two chapters... i found... ABO****ELY NO GRAMMAR ERRORS AT ALL?!?! Wow, your experience as a writer shines through here!

A+, man!

Plot: It's old, used and partially based on one of my most hated canons (the anime) but you retell it in such a refreshing way. I'm sure you could give us some mean ideas on this thread: Rewriting the anime.

I'm struggling to find something to mark you down for, and it's not working.

A.

Cast: We have Ash the boy-scout, Gary the cool and collected pro, Damien the ego-freak and Ellen the weird-the-heck-outta-me girl trainer. Thankfully, Ash gets more gumption than he gets in the anime (falling for team rocket's lame-*** disguises 550+ times is not a very impressive resume) and Gary isn't so hateable (not a word, don't use it) At least we can hate Damien's guts, what would we do without you, ol' hateful?

A

Description: From Pikachu's attempt to obtain food to the battles, description is one area i know i don't need to comment on. I'll let the grade do all the talking: A+

Length: From your previous works, I'd say you have this category down pat.
Not strictly tome-length, but good to keep me occupied.

A

Damn my honesty...

Overall:



Hey. You earned it. Don't make me change my mind (grins a j/k grin)

On this chapter: D'aaaaaawww! Wotta sweet ending! Pikachu and the drawers was also innovative. I hope Damien get his *** whupped, the ego-happy loonie needs to get over himself and fast!

L@er!

[Araleon]

^ Yup, I am a dude. . They are cofusing, and I really like how Damien is the rival. I always wished htat he appeared again. I mean, Ash got his freaking Pokemon for Pete's sake. That's why I like Ash's Chimchar.

Eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

Araleon

[Orion-Sama]

I'm finally done. I must say this chapter was quite surprising in quite a few ways. The battle against Damien was really nice, and all spoken about there was really interesting as well. Cool to see Gary isn't as cocky as usual. He's actually rather deep. All in all, I can see a few things developing already, knowing how most of this will turn out.

Now, that this is based heavily in the games is a good thing. Yet, I can see some Anime stuff merged in extremely well, which gives value to the overall plot. The Pikachu lash thing was funny, as well as when he wanted to get food, even if that was confusing, but that is just me.

What Ellen told Ash was certainly unexpected. But all in all, it's commendable you break down clichés one can see miles away in such a masterful way. Definitely upsetting, but in the good way. The Spearow battle bit was well-done, and conforming with the Anime, but with less flash, Ho-Oh, Misty and instant full happiness. And that can only be good!! Besides lack of Ho-Oh, if only because I like him.

Regardless, I like this, much surprisingly. I wonder what'll become of Damien, and I just want to see the house thing. Hahaha. Keep it up!

[Sike Saner]

Ha, Damien could certainly use a lesson on losing with grace, that's for sure. X3 And his parting shot at Ash's hat amused me, partly due to the immaturirty of it but also partly because there's just something about someone insulting someone else's hat that often amuses me, as it did in this case. XP

Ash's defense of his hat was even funnier, in my opinion--I wonder if he thinks everything he sees on TV is cool. If so, better keep him away from "Jackass" reruns. XP

And I liked it when Pikachu was trying to get a hold of the bowl of vegetables in the kitchen. I thought that was a cute scene. ^^

[Seijiro Mafuné]

Thank you all very much for your reviews. I appreciate them, and I suppose I will answer some of the questions now.

Araleon: Thanks for reading. No, Ellen doesn’t like Ash that way. They were simply friends for a good deal of the last ten years and she was usually protecting him from other stuff. He didn’t really think of her as much more than a good friend, and it’s obvious now that she feels the same.

miler567: Thanks for reading… and saying absolutely nothing important.

Air Dragon: Thanks for reading and for the compliments, even if they make you rather partial. If you gave me a single or two stars, on the end, then thank you very much. Otherwise, ignore the thanks.

Araleon: I can’t thank you twice. Please don’t post more than once needlessly.

*Orion*: Thanks for reading. I’m glad you like the way I’m writing this story, and will make sure to keep up the good work. Of course, I’ll try to remain original and make it so things can’t be too predictable, especially considering the kind of stories I have to compete against. And yeah, I’ll try to maintain a balance between game content and animé content, while still using elements from my other stories that make them more original at some degree. Even if it’s not by much, according to some people. And I wonder why you think the Ellen segment is so upsetting… at any rate, you’ll get to understand that now.

Sike Saner: Thanks for reading. Damien certainly has a personality problem, but this is part of the joke, overall. The argument you’ve seen is not the very last one, as you may see soon, just as Ash’s defense of his attitudes… which, well, involve spoiling and I can’t do that. And I’m also glad you liked the Pikachu scene; it took quite a lot of work to just get it right.

With this, I would like to ask you all to read the following chapter and enjoy.

Pokémon: Thunder Yellow
Third in the Pokémon Kanto Version Series

Chapter Three: Forging a Bond

“Hey, wait up! You can’t go there without me, I don’t think you even know where it is!” he said, but even then, both of them were laughing, as they ran.

Viridian City was actually closer than they expected, as only five minutes later, just as they had ran out of breath, Ash and Pikachu found themselves on a small hill overseeing the city. Seen from the distance, it looked quite like a busy city, with several tall buildings visible from their position, and many people were apparently doing important things there.

“Wow… finally, Viridian City…” Ash said, letting out a breath. Pikachu stared at him, somewhat confused, and Ash glanced back with a smile. “Viridian City is one of the main cities of Kanto; it has several important buildings and is the closest to the Indigo Plateau. That’s the place where we want to go to, by the way; only those who want to become Pokémon Masters can get there…”

“Pi?” Pikachu asked, and the boy smirked, eyes closed.

“…and that’s what I’m going to be!” he said, decided. “The number one Pokémon Master of the world… that’s my dream! I’ll do my best to win!” Then, he opened both eyes, looking at Pikachu again. “You’re going to help me out, aren’t you?”

“…pika…” was the embarrassed response, and Ash looked away as well.

“You’ll get it sooner or later…” he decided, before beginning to walk again. “Come on, let’s see what the city is like!”

“Pika!”

As they approached it, Ash and Pikachu would see the city gates, painted in a verdant green and with letters written on the sides and top. ‘VIRIDIAN CITY – ETERNALLY GREEN PARADISE’ was the message they showed, and it was obvious from the fair amount of trees they could see even then that this was the case; there was plenty of open space, including a lake in the distance.

“Piiika!” Pikachu let out, amazed, and quickly began running off. At first Ash was happy with his reaction, but as his Pokémon ran off, he grew worried.

“Hey, wait up!” he said, running after him. As they were approaching a street, Pikachu hadn’t noticed a car passing by, and cheerfully ran off the pavement and to the asphalt. The sound of a horn distracted him, however, and he turned to the side enough to see a huge car running towards him. His face an expression of shock, he squealed in fear, before recoiling towards his imminent end.

“PIKACHU!” Ash screamed, trying to run towards him, but it was useless; the car was too fast, even though the driver had noticed that Pikachu wasn’t making a move to try and escape. All Ash could do was close his eyes and wait for the worst.

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*

As the car finally stopped, both Ash and Pikachu opened their eyes, the Pokémon coming face to face with a wheel at least twice his own size. He stared at it for a few seconds.

“…chaaa~,” he let out, eyes slowly relaxing as he fell on his back, unconscious. Ash quickly ran towards him and picked him up, while the driver glared at him from the side.

“Hey, kid! Don’t let your Pokémon run off like that, it could get seriously hurt!” he told Ash, as he was returning to the sidewalk.

“Sorry, mister… I didn’t expect that…” he replied, and the driver muttered something about the recent youth as he began driving off. As Ash waited until the lights changed to green, he saw a familiar person in the distance. “Eh?!”

The aforementioned person looked at him as well, and smirked. “Hey, Ashy-boy! How’s it going?” Gary asked loudly, and Ash grinned.

“I’m fine! Wait a bit!” he replied, the lights finally changing as he ran towards his old friend. “Wow, you’re still here? I didn’t expect that!”

“Oh, I’m getting prepared for my first Gym Battle…” he said, confidently, before his smirk became a bit nastier. “Speaking of which… what do you say we have a battle?”

“Whoa, you’re serious? You want to battle me?” Ash replied, his smile widening. “Wow, that’s great!”

“Yeah, I know… I want to see how my Pokémon deal in a battle against an actual trainer,” Gary revealed, before placing a hand on his pocket. From it, he took out three Pokéballs, fitting among his fingers. “So, how many should we go for? Five-on-five? Four-on-four? Three-on-three?” he asked, taking out two more from his other pocket.

Ash stared at him, for a few seconds. “You… already have a full team?” he asked, and the brown-haired boy laughed at that.

“Ashy-boy, I’ve caught ten Pokémon already!” he revealed, and Ash stared at him in wonder. “Still, I’m willing to go for a shorter battle, since it’s obvious you don’t have that many Pokémon of your own… so, how many should I use?”

The capped boy was staring at Pikachu, for now, and Gary began to feel uncomfortable. “Um… Ash, you did catch Pokémon, right?” he asked, placing his Pokéballs slowly back in their pockets, but Ash displayed no reaction. “You… have at least three Pokémon… two…?” The lack of reaction from Ash was telling him everything, at this point. “You… you haven’t even caught a single Pokémon?”

After a few seconds, Gary started to laugh. “HAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Hearing that finally broke Ash’s funk, and he glared at his rival.

“What’s so funny?!” he asked, and Gary took a few moments to breathe, before answering him.

“Ashy-boy… I can’t believe it! I expected you to have managed to catch a few Pokémon, and make things more interesting… but only a Pikachu you have problems controlling? Honestly, this is too funny,” he explained, before snorting. “I guess I must have made a mistake… I thought too highly of you, and was even thinking I might have some trouble with you, but I guess it was just a fluke that you won against Damien. How useless…”

“Hey, take that back!” Ash snapped at him, as Pikachu was waking up. “I’m not useless at all!”

“Oh, really?” Gary asked, then. “Well, do you really think you can offer me a challenge?”

“You bet! I’m going to prove to you that I’m not a loser at all, Gary! I beat Damien fair and square, and not because of any flukes or anything like that!”

“Alright, then… follow me, Ashy-boy,” was the response, and Gary began walking away. Ash followed, still holding Pikachu, who was staring at the brown-haired boy in curiosity.

Eventually, they arrived in a park near the western exit of Viridian City, and Gary stopped by a rather nice field. “This ought to do…” he said, before looking at Ash. “I’ll go to the other side of this field. We’re going to fight a one-on-one match, you using your Pikachu while I use one of my Pokémon. We fight until one of them falls unconscious. You agree to these terms?”

“Alright… well, how about you admitting that I’m not a failure, as well?” Ash asked, then.

Gary smirked. “Maybe if you give me a good show, I’ll do so…”

“Then I don’t have any problems with that!” was the response. Unbeknownst to either of them, inside one of the bushes nearby, a pair of blue eyes were peering through, their owner hidden by the shade.

“Alright… I’ve gotta warn you, though, that I’ve caught this Pokémon especially because of you!” Gary replied, taking out one of his Pokéballs again. “Go, Nidoran!”

As he released the sphere, out came a strange-looking Pokémon, with purple skin, long ears, a bunch of horns spread all over its body, and one of the nastiest appearances a little quadruped thing could have while still looking horribly cute. “Nido!” it cried out, in a masculine voice.

“Go, Pikachu!” Ash countered, throwing Pikachu at that direction. The Pokémon was taken aback, and quickly began flailing his limbs around, managing to land rather decently on the ground.

“Pika! Pikapi pika pikaka Pikachu ka!” he snapped at Ash, turning towards him, and the boy laughed a bit uncomfortably.

“Sorry about that…” he replied, but Gary drew his attention with a cry.

“Hey! Battle time, remember?” he told Ash, who nodded.

“Alright… come on, Pikachu! It’s time for our first real battle!” he told Pikachu, who relented and turned towards the Nidoran. “Use Thundershock!”

As his cheeks began to crackle with electricity, Pikachu prepared to unleash the attack; however, Gary had already taken it in consideration.

“Peck, Nidoran!” he countered, and his Pokémon ran forward, the horn in his forehead pointed towards Pikachu. Nidoran managed to reach him before Pikachu had unleashed his electricity, the Pokémon making contact against his side hard enough to penetrate the skin.

“PIKAAA!” was the cry of pain, as Pikachu unleashed his electricity, launching Nidoran off him. The wound wasn’t very nasty, however.

“What was that about?” Ash asked, taken aback. “You let your own Pokémon get hurt, and my Pikachu’s fine!”

“Oh, is it?” Gary asked, and Ash would then notice something unusual… Nidoran’s horn was dripping with a strange liquid. It was hard to see, but…

“Pi… pika!” Pikachu suddenly gasped, one of his legs trembling as his body felt heavier. His breathing became a lot less stable, and his sight had started to grow woozy as well. “Pika… pi pika…”

“Pikachu, what’s wrong?” Ash asked, as he looked at his Pokémon. Gary’s smirk was followed by a snort, now. “What did you do to him?!”

“I didn’t do anything… my Nidoran did,” he replied, crossing his arms. “Nidorans possess several small sacs of venom inside every single one of their horns, which tend to make contact with their opponents. If they pierce through, the sacs unleash their poison directly into the bloodstream, and quickly affect the Pokémon. These are usually non-lethal, but it’s enough to knock out your Pokémon.”

“Oh no!” Ash cried out, stunned, and Pikachu seemed to be biting his lip in anger. Nidoran had stood up, as well, and was looking ready to fight.

“Pika…” Pikachu grunted, before running ahead. Gary seemed to be expecting this, however.

“Oh, you’re going to keep letting your Pokémon run wild? It seems you really don’t have much control over it, after all…” he said, calmly. “Nidoran, use Growl!”

Even as Pikachu approached his opponent, Nidoran had already taken its breath, before letting out a low growl that distressed Pikachu enough to make him close his eyes.

“Ah, no, Pikachu!” Ash was surprised to see his Pokémon get so weakened, with Gary soon giving its new order.

“Again, use Peck!” he said, and Nidoran began running ahead. However, the previous move was one Ash did remember, and he realized Pikachus did know it… that, and a different move, but that would likely have the same effects.

If only he could remember which would be useful…

“Pikachu, try using Tail Whip!” he decided, and the Pokémon grunted in response. However, even as he opened one eye again, he saw the Nidoran approaching fast, and the fear of suffering that pain returned.

“Pi-pika!” he squealed, turning around and trying to run away… barely realizing he had focused his energy on his tail in the process. The eyes widened, in the bush, and its owner noticeably gasped… but nobody was looking at the bush, to its luck.

Just as the Nidoran had come close enough, it got a tail whack right on its face, flinching involuntarily. The face was also one of the few safe locations, as there were absolutely no spikes there, and Pikachu’s tail managed to push him away unscathed. While the Electric-type tried to move away, Ash saw to his luck that the Nidoran was currently trying to recover, as well.

“Now use Thundershock again!” he added to his previous order, and Pikachu’s cheeks crackled with intense electricity.

“No! Nidoran, use Growl! Try to weaken it!” Gary countered, and the Pokémon let out a snarl that distressed Pikachu, enough to make him close his eyes.

It wasn’t enough, however.

“Piiiikaaaa…CHUUUUUUUUU!!!” the Electric-type let out, before unleashing all the accumulated energy right into his opponent’s body, who was too close for comfort. The electricity surged through Nidoran’s body, intensely shocking him, and his joints stiffened significantly.

“Nido…” the Pokémon grunted, before falling to the ground, paralyzed. Pikachu’s breathing continued to weaken, however, as he glared at his opponent.

At the same time, in the bushes, the pair of eyes had focused on Ash, and seemed to have noticed something. After a few seconds, they closed, a quiet giggle coming out of the bush, and a pale glow shone for a few seconds. While the human prepared to act again, he felt a sudden warmth in his chest, halting his command for a few seconds.

“<…win…>” a voice said, suddenly, making Ash blink. “<…must… win…>”

“W-who said that?” he asked, out of the blue, and Gary stared at him.

“Said what?” he said, frowning. “Ash, are you sure the pressure isn’t getting to you?”

“Hah! You’re the one who’s being pressured, Gary! I’m going to win!” Ash countered, looking at Pikachu. “Come on, Pikachu! Use Tail Whip again!”

Pikachu ran forward, tail glowing with energy, but his breathing was becoming sparser now. “<H-hurts… body hurts…>” the voice repeated, growing angrier by the second. Ash looked around, still confused. Where was it coming from?

Then his Pokémon slammed his tail against the Nidoran’s face, once more with intensity, but the boy noticed that Pikachu had opened his mouth wide, now. “<TAKE THAT!>” he had snarled, and the voice had undoubtedly come from his Pokémon now. Ash could only stare at him, however, as the Pokémon stunned his opponent once more, who was still paralyzed by the electricity. While Nidoran struggled to break free, Gary continued barking orders, trying to think of something to let him win.

“Pikachu?” Ash stammered, too surprised to react, and the Pokémon glared at him.

“Pika! Pikapika!” he replied, before turning back at Nidoran, glaring at the other Pokémon now. Gary paused as well, looking at him.

“What now, Ash? Did you see something weird?” he asked, and the boy shook his head.

“N-no! I just thought…” he tried to say, but was interrupted by Nidoran’s growl, as the Pokémon finally broke free; the electric bonds had snapped, and it was now standing up again. “Nevermind that! Pikachu, Thundershock again!”

“Nidoran, Peck!” was the counter, and the two Pokémon ran at each other, with Pikachu moving somewhat slower. Just as it seemed that they were going to impact, however, Ash clenched a fist, tightly.

“Jump over it!” he added, and Pikachu reacted at once, leaping above his opponent. This was something Nidoran was unprepared for; the Poison-type Pokémon skid to a halt, watching as Pikachu left pecking range. Without any orders from its trainer, who hadn’t been expecting it either, the Pokémon could only stand there, staring at Pikachu.

And that’s when Pikachu’s cheeks crackled.

“<You like pain?>” he asked, and Ash could understand it clearer now. “<You like hurting others? Because, if you do… then I don’t feel bad about this!>”

With a cry, he unleashed one last Thundershock on the Nidoran, who cried out in pain just as it was overwhelmed by the hundreds of volts coursing through its veins. With one last gasp, it fell down on its belly, unconscious. “Ni… nido…”

As he landed, Pikachu had one more thing to say. “<Heh… guess I’m getting stronger after all…>” he said… before one of his legs gave in, and he fell as well. “Pika!”

“Ah, Pikachu!” Ash cried out, thoughts of the battle ignored; even as Gary was about to congratulate him, somewhat grudgingly, he noticed that Ash had stopped paying attention to him. Instead, Ash had picked up the fallen Pokémon, trying to keep it from falling down. “The poison’s still hurting him… don’t worry, it’ll be okay!”

“Pika… Pikapi pika…” the Pokémon breathed, painfully, while Gary stared at them, confused. Eventually, however, he recalled his Nidoran, the small rodent returning to its Pokéball as soon as the beam struck it. Then, he approached Ash.

“That was quite a risk, Ashy-boy,” he said, the smirk long gone from his face now. “If your Pokémon was just a bit weaker, it wouldn’t have managed to clear that jump, and you would have probably lost. I’m impressed, but you shouldn’t put your Pokémon in such dangers.” Even as he spoke, however, he noticed Ash wasn’t paying much attention to him. “Ash? Ash, are you listening to me?”

“Gary, we’ve got to take Pikachu to a hospital now! He’s wounded and sick, after all!” Ash responded, getting up. “Do you know where we can find one? Please tell me!”

“Ash, calm down!” the other boy snapped, for a moment. “You’re not going to help your Pokémon if you keep panicking like that, you know!”

Ash stared at him, for a few moments, before nodding. “R-right! I got it! I have to stay calm!” he said, before looking around. “Still, Pikachu is…”

“Don’t worry; I know where the nearest Pokémon Center is,” Gary told him, before making a hand motion. “The effects of the poison aren’t too bad; I’ve seen worse cases in Gramps’ lab. If we get there in less than ten minutes it’ll be more than enough for him to make a complete recovery. Now come on, we’re wasting time!”

“Alright!” Ash said, starting to leave… but as he did, he heard a small sound, just as the wind blew through the bushes, rustling them slightly. Normally he’d think it was just that, but what he heard was a different sound…

‘Teehee!’ it was, a low and quiet enough sound he barely heard, and yet it was. Ash glanced back, in surprise, and began to look around, curiously. Gary stopped, after a moment, and looked back.

“Ash! What are you doing?!” he called, drawing the other boy’s attention. “I thought you said you wanted to take Pikachu to the Pokémon Center, didn’t you? Why did you stop?”

“Ah!” Ash let out, before chasing after him. “Sorry! I just thought-”

“Nevermind!” Gary told him, as he tried to explain. “Let’s just go, Ashy-boy… and fix your hat, too!”

“Gary!!!”

…

It was quiet, when Pikachu woke up. He had been too tired when Ash handed him to the human in the ‘Center’, and considering he was lying in some sort of soft floor, all he could guess was that he had been asleep during the process. A slow stretching procedure made it clear that he wasn’t hurting anymore, and that was enough good news for the Pokémon.

“Pika!” he let out, before he finally began to look around. The room was pretty bland, overall, with a lack of lighting and white walls. He could see well, despite that, but it was a bit useless; it was just too boring. Even those rooms Ash had brought him to before were more interesting than that, but this one lacked about all things of interest. “Chu…” he couldn’t help but say, a bit sadly. “Pika… Pikapi! Pikapiiii!”

There was no immediate response; it seemed Ash was gone. He cried out a bit more, but no replies meant no change. At this point, he sniffed the air, looking for scents; there was bound to be an important one, a scent he could use to track down an escape-

“Pi!” Pikachu let out, eyes growing wide… before he had to cover his face. “Piiikaaa…” That was a horrible smell! So strong, too, and nasty! It was only noticeable with him actually trying to smell, but now… the whole air stung of it! It was so bad and wet and disgusting and horrible and it hurt his nose!

“Pikapiii!!” he cried out again, keeping his nose protected, but it was hard to make it sound decent; that was more of a wreck, overall. Since the human was nowhere in hearing range, he didn’t seem to have much of a choice but to go out on his own, again. “Pikapika…” he growled, before walking off the soft floor.

And promptly grabbing back onto it with his hind paws. “PIIIKAAA!!!” he cried out, his front legs shaking and moving rapidly. He hadn’t expected to be so high up! How was he supposed to know!? Humans were so bizarre!

After a few attempts at hanging on air, he managed to fall back on the soft floor, landing on his back. His tail twitched, squished underneath his body, but that was in no way as bad as the feeling in the middle of his belly, like he had eaten a sick piece of fruit. He was that high up? It was no wonder the floor felt soft, but…

Slowly, Pikachu looked back at the soft floor’s edge, noticing the wooden thing. It sure was soft enough he could rest upon, so that probably was the reason why it was there… but well, now that he was paying more attention, he could tell this wasn’t going to be that hard to get down from.

If only there wasn’t that stupid smell…!

After getting down slowly and difficultly, the electric rabbit thingy Pokémon covered his nose, even as he looked around for a way out. The horrible stench of the cleanliness that covered the floor was making him sick; he had heard rumors of the things humans used in their lairs, but did they have to smell so strongly and so terribly?

Still, he didn’t have to wait long to escape the stench; his eyes soon found a passageway through which he could leave this enclosed area, and as large as it was, he would probably find it to smell better. He quickly ran that way, then, staying silent so as to hold his breath.

As he left the room, Pikachu let out a sigh of relief. Not only was he free from the smell, but if things were right, he was free from Ash, as well. He would probably go and look for his pack, as his family was probably already worried and looking for him… that is, if they hadn’t run afoul of any nasty Pokémon, by now. Suppressing those thoughts, he began to head forward, as he needed to hurry up if he wanted to leave.

However, it wasn’t long until he found himself lost, the various corridors all looking the same to the Pikachu. As he had no memory of how he had arrived in that room, he couldn’t make head nor tail of where he was or how to leave, and this place only made him more confused. He couldn’t even smell his way out, since that room had such a strong smell… it had messed up his nose, since he kept smelling it. It was weaker, but still there…

Of course, it wasn’t an uneventful trip; in fact, just as he turned around yet another corner, he slammed against some soft, fleshy thing, a hint of pink having been visible when he turned around. His face remained there for a few seconds, until he managed to pull himself straight, shaking his head. “Piiii… ka!” he let out, in the process.

“Chan?” a loud, high-pitched noise sounded, and his ears twitched in response; he had quickly realized that whatever it was that he had hit, it was a female; after all, no male sounded as such…

“Pi-pika!” he stammered, eyes still closed, before turning towards the likely source of the sound. “Pika, pikapika, pikachu pipika…”

As he apologized with a silly smile, turning towards the stranger, he slowly opened his eyes, expecting to see a gorgeous female with lithe curves and a small body and-

“Chansey!” the high-pitched response came, and to his surprise it was coming from pretty high up… and right in front of him, he could see an egg placed in a pouch of some sort, attached to a…

Pikachu’s face fell at once, and he felt all the blood go as far away from his face as quickly as possible. Standing right in front of him was a giant pink egg. With feathers. And eyes. And a mouth. And-

“…piiiiii-kaaaaa…” he uttered, his expression showing revulsion. Was that a joke? That giant egg was alive? And it definitely didn’t smell any good, so eating it was out of question. What egg was fleshy, anyway?

“Chansey?” the talking egg asked, surprised by his reaction. “Chansey chansey?”

“Pika! Pikapika pikachu pikakachu! Chupikaka!” Pikachu snapped, in anger. “Pika pikachu!” His words shocked the giant egg, who covered the mouth with a paw.

“Chansey chansey! Chan-chan-chaaansey!” the giant egg said, before noticing something. “Chansey! Chanseychanseychansey!” Pikachu blinked, after hearing that.

“Pika? Pi… pikachuka?” he asked, confused, and the talking egg frowned.

“Chanseychan!” was the response, before he was swiftly raised off his feet and lifted by this mysterious pink egg. The egg then promptly began walking away, in the direction opposite to the one Pikachu wanted.

“PIKA! PIKAPIKA!! PIIIKA!!!” Pikachu screamed, angrily, before his cheeks crackled in the obvious sign of unleashing electricity. The strange egg stopped and lowered him, then, something that confused him enough to not do so at once.

That was when he was unceremoniously slapped into unconsciousness. “Piiikaaa~…” he moaned, his eyes spinning.

It was a short while later when he recovered; however, he was back on the soft floor, with the sound of footsteps moving away. It took him only a few seconds to figure out what had happened, and the Pikachu frowned.

“Pika…” he growled, before getting back onto the actual floor with more ease; then, he started to run away, decided to escape. It wasn’t until he had passed a few corridors that something happened, however.

“Chan!”

Two large paws grasped onto his body, and he came face-to-face with the pink egg again. “Pika!” he snapped, angrily, even as he struggled to get away. “Piiiika!” he added, sparks crackling again. The strange egg didn’t seem too impressed, however.

“Chanseychansey! Chansey?” Pikachu heard as a response, and blinked.

“Pika? Pikaka! Pikachupika!” he replied, confused again. The giant egg stared at him, for a moment, as he went on. “Pikapika, pikachu pipikaka! Pikachupika!”

“Chansey,” was the next response, and one of the paws released the yellow mouse. It was a bit of a relief to him, as he thought he was finally going to-

Another round of slapping quickly knocked him out, and his head tilted back. “Piiikaaa~…” he moaned, entering the realm of unconsciousness again. He barely was aware of a soft grumbling, something like ‘Chansey… chansey chan chansey…’, for the last few moments.

It didn’t take him too long to wake up again, the feeling of pain gone and his mind clear again. As he began to sit up again, the memories of the past few periods of time returned to him, especially the ones related to giant pink eggs.

“Pika… pikapika, pikachupika!” he let out, before heading out of the soft floor, this time jumping all the way down. The fall didn’t actually hurt him, which he was glad for, as he started his search for an exit of this extremely strange place with too-big corridors and too-confusing monsters.

It wasn’t until after he reached the point where he first met the talking egg – or something akin to it, really – that he stopped, sniffing around quickly; he didn’t want to risk being caught by that strange thing again. The smell seemed to be strong, but not enough to indicate it was close; still, he decided to be careful, as who knew what other strange things were in this strange place.

Another smell came to him soon enough, although it wasn’t the giant egg’s; that one was too nice and flowery to be forgettable. Rather, it was much more like another ground animal, with traces of the grass and earth that wasn’t found in this place.

“Pika?” he uttered, turning towards the source of this smell. Standing there was some weird sand-colored Pokémon, with noticeable creaks along the skin, as well as small claws. It was using both rear legs and tail to stand, which seemed a bit easy thanks to the white stuff that covered its body almost completely.

Of course, the fact that it looked so cute made it hard for Pikachu to take the thing seriously; almost as soon as he saw it, the electric Pokémon just stared at this newcomer, expression uncertain.

“Shrew,” was the only word the stranger said. Or, rather, tried to say; the fact was that it was so well-covered that there weren’t many actions available for it to perform, other than waddling and keeping its balance.

That attempt, however, was enough to break the trance Pikachu had fallen into. Just a bit.

“…piiika…” he muttered, covering his mouth, trying to keep the smile off his lips and failing, the difficulty increasing every time the Pokémon said something… which had started being all the time, now, as it tried to offer a defense, to no use.

Eventually he just gave in and started to laugh, rolling on the floor, while the Pokémon’s eyes started to grow more angry, displaying its actual opinion. The more it tried to argue, however, the more Pikachu laughed once it heard the stranger’s voice, so affected by the white stuff on its body.

So, with a grow, it started to scratch the stuff off its body, using its sharp claws to do so. Pretty soon there was just a bunch of white stuff at its feet, and Pikachu had stopped laughing just a bit, to look at this newcomer again.

The Pokémon was definitely not as ridiculous-looking now, looking kind of like a rounder Pikachu; however, the roundness was not from fat, but rather, bulkiness. He could tell that whatever kind of Pokémon this was, it certainly wasn’t a common one.

“Shrew, shrew, shrew!” the Pokémon growled, in that same weird voice as before, and Pikachu rolled onto a defensive stance; this wasn’t a Pokémon he had ever encountered before. “Sandshrew… sandshrew!”

“Pika… pikapikapika!” was the response, as Pikachu lowered his tail down enough, and the two jumped at each other, ready to fight.

…

Ash walked into the Pokémon Center, alongside Gary. The two of them had decided to go see the local Gym, partially to examine it before they could challenge it and partially because he couldn’t believe it when Gary said the Gym Leader was gone.

Unfortunately, that had been the truth; the Gym was closed, when they got there. It was some sort of warehouse, in appearance, not exactly akin to Ash’s original beliefs, and in fact seemed to have been closed for a while, then. There was no way in, and even the windows seemed to have been covered up. In a way, it was as if the Gym wasn’t supposed to be closed, but something had forced it. It didn’t help them that there had been no information or anything, about it.

“How long can it have been since they closed it?” he asked, out loud, drawing Gary’s attention. “Everybody seemed to be so surprised about it…”

“And it can’t have been because the Gym Leader retired,” the brown-haired boy added, suspicious. “Normally the League would already have found a replacement, but the building was closed for long enough and I don’t really buy that excuse.”

Taped to the door was a rather confusing note, which did say the Gym was closed for an indeterminate period of time, but had included something about how ‘renovations were being made’. The fact that nothing seemed to have actually been done was what made them suspicious.

“Should we try and alert the League?” Ash suggested, and Gary shook his head. “Why not?”

“They’re probably already looking into it. It’s not like they haven’t learned about it, after all…” he reasoned, as the two arrived at the counter. A beautiful pink-haired woman was standing behind it, wearing a fittingly pink and white nurse outfit, looking very occupied.

“Hello there!” she greeted them, pleasantly. “You two have returned to take your Pokémon, I assume?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ash replied, looking around. “Is my Pikachu okay now?”

“Of course it is!” she responded, before her expression became concerned. “But you should have been more careful with it… the poor thing looked so weak and undernourished, when you gave it to us!”

“Really?!” the boy let out, shocked, and Gary snorted in response. “Is he going to be okay?”

“It will, but it needs more rest and treatment,” the nurse explained, ignoring the other boy’s reaction. “I’d rather you leave it in our care for at least a few more days, so we can do a full check-up and-”

Before she could go on, several indistinct sounds came from deeper inside the Center, and both boys turned towards it, alongside her. “W-what was that?” Gary asked, shocked.

“I… I don’t know,” the pink-haired woman admitted, looking at that direction with worry. “That’s where your Pikachu was resting at!”

“Pikachu?! Oh no!” Ash cried out, running in that direction. Both Gary and the nurse followed him, for a few seconds, before they reached a very messy room. There were broken bottles and beakers sprawled all over the place, as well as fallen books and other non-damaged objects, and the walls seemed to have been struck by small explosives or something.

Of course, that was nothing compared to the sight in the exact center of the room, where Ash could see Pikachu and a Sandshrew struggling to hit each other, while a Chansey held them apart and far from the ground. “Chansey chansey chansey!” she snapped at them, angrily.

“Chansey?! What happened here?” the nurse asked, and the pink Pokémon looked at her, still frowning. “Did these two Pokémon get hurt?”

“Chansey! Chansey chansey Chan seychan seyseychansey!” she proclaimed, shaking the arm holding Pikachu a tad too strongly. “Chansey chan chansey!”

“This Pokémon was the cause of this mess?” the woman replied, receiving something that barely resembled a nod from the humongous egg-shaped Pokémon. “I can’t believe it!”

“Pikachu, what’s wrong with you?!” Ash demanded of the Pokémon, irritated, only to receive another one of those arrogant ignores from him. “Hey, don’t do that!”

As he continued to argue, Gary began to retreat, a sight Ash only noticed a few moments later. When he turned around, the other ten-year old boy could only smile lamely. “Er… sorry, Ash,” he apologized.

“Sorry? For what?” the boy asked, only for the pink-haired woman to draw his attention by taking his shoulders with her hands and making him face her.

“You’re in some big trouble, mister…” she said, in a serious tone. Ash couldn’t help but remember his mother, in the rather rare occasions she was angry.

“E…he…he…” he let out, nervously.

…!

So, I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter. I will hopefully bring more to you soon… after some updates.

As for the next chapter hint, hn… on the next chapter, we shall see Ash and Pikachu with… a box.

What’s wrong? Do you not like cryptic advice coming from me? I apologize for the inconvenience.

[Air Dragon]

No one's reviewed yet?

Wow.

Well, this was an interesting chapter. The battle between ash and Gary was well-done, and Gary's reaction to finding out Ash hadn't caught a single pokemon since leaving Pallet was rather humourous.

Spazzing Chansey ftw, ma man. Seriously. And do not tick off the Nurse Joy...

There may have been grammar errors, but i was too busy laughing my butt off to check where they were. Good job making a grammar nazi forget his aim... :P

OK, i gotta run. Keep it coming, guys!

L@er!