Chapter 1 – First Step

Chapter 1 – First Step

Jun 24, 2021

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Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

‘Please’-Pokédex voice

"Read"-Dialogues

'Review'-Thoughts/Telepathy

“Support”-Announcement

Author’s Note:

The minimum age for becoming a trainer is 15 throughout the Pokémon world.

No 4-attack limitation.

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Chapter 1 – First Step

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‘I’m late’-this was the only thought on the mind of Ash as he rushed past startled familiar faces towards Professor Oak’s Lab. Today was the day he was supposed to receive his starter Pokémon and he was late as he stayed up all night watching last year’s Indigo League winner attempting the Elite Four gauntlet to gain the right to challenge Champion Lance Blackthorn, only to be annihilated by Bruno of the Elite Four. He was supposed to be at the lab at 8 to choose his starter Pokémon and it was already 08:30.

Just like every aspiring Pokémon trainer in the Kanto region, he wanted one of the three mascot starter Pokémon of the region. However, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle were some of the rarest Pokémon in the world, and even with the influence Professor Oak had in the Indigo League, he was only provided with one of each species to give out as starters.

He soon reached the gates of the lab and rushed uphill towards the lab, hoping that the professor would have a strong Pokémon left for him, as the three Kanto starters would have been already claimed by now. Ash finally reached the front door of the lab and quickly rushed in, only to run into his former friend turned rival-Gary Oak, the grandson of Professor Oak.

“Hey, Ashy-Boy!” he mocked and continued arrogantly, “You’re a bit too late, I got the best Pokémon of the lot”

“Which one did you pick?” Ash asked curiously.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out, later loser” Gary replied flippantly and walked out of the lab. It took all of Ash’s self-control to not snap back at Gary and after taking a deep breath, he walked towards the main hall of the lab where Professor Oak gives out the Pokédex and starter Pokémon. Ash finally made it to the hall and Professor Oak did not look very impressed. “Ah! Ash, finally decided to show up after all?” He asked Ash, disappointment evident in his tone.

“I’m sorry Professor” Ash apologized.

“It’s fine but Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle were already taken” he informed Ash.

Ash was disappointed, but it was something that he expected, so he inquired, “Which are other Pokémon you have?”

Professor Oak replied, “Well, there’s Geodude, Elekid, Bellsprout, Zubat, and Pikachu”

‘The only one that stands out to me is Elekid’ Ash quickly concluded and said, “I choose Elekid”

Professor Oak picked up a Pokéball and handed it to Ash and said, "Go On, let him out"

"Come on out!” Ash shouted jubilantly, throwing the Pokéball, which released a white light that faded to reveal a yellow, round-bodied Pokémon with black stripes. It had two horns on its head which resembled the prongs of a plug, with holes in the side. It had a black lightning bolt mark on its chest and had rounded toeless feet and had bulky arms with three claws instead of fingers. The released Pokémon started rotating its short arms at high speeds and yelled, "Elekidd"

Ash lowered himself to face Elekid with a grin and asked with some apprehension, "Do you want to be friends with me?"

The Elekid nodded while spinning his arms, indicating that he would like to be friends with Ash.

"I'll be glad to have Elekid as my starter Pokémon.” Ash said, turning to the professor, who nodded with a smile and turned to the computer directly behind his desk for a few minutes and turned around with a red-colored Pokédex and said to Ash, "This is the latest version of the Pokédex, it is tied to the Pokétransfer technology, so you can use it to swap your Pokémon without going to the Pokémon Centre. I’ve also registered Elekid as your starter Pokémon.”

Ash accepted the Pokédex (Ash's Unova Pokédex in anime) and activated it by pressing the ON button.

'I'm Dexter, a Pokédex programmed for trainer Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town by Professor Oak. My function is to provide ash with information and advice regarding Pokémon and their training. If lost or stolen, I cannot be replaced' The Pokédex announced in a male robotic voice.

He activated the scan function and pointed the Pokédex at Elekid.

'Scanning…...'

'Elekid, the Electric Pokémon. Elekid is the pre-evolved form of Electabuzz. Elekid stores electricity in its body. If it touches metal and accidentally discharges all its built-up electricity, this Pokémon begins swinging its arms in circles to recharge itself. Elekid is an Electric-type Pokémon. This Elekid is a Male with the Ability Static and Hidden Ability Vital Spirit.

It is 0.8m tall and weighs 25kg.

Attacks: Swift, Thunder Shock, Ice Punch and Teleport (Egg Move)’

"You are awesome Elekid!" Ash said with glee evident in his tone at obtaining a Pokémon that had four moves of four different types as his starter Pokémon.

To which Elekid nodded haughtily while spinning his arms at high speeds.

“Hey Elekid, would you like to have another name, one that would make you stand out from the rest of your species?” Ash enquired.

To which Elekid nodded in agreement.

“How about……. Ramiel?” he asked.

Seeing Elekid’s confused look, he explained, “It means Thunder of God”

On hearing this, Elekid nodded his head in agreement and started spinning his arms around even faster, causing Ash to smile in happiness.

“I believe you really lucked out Ash” Professor Oak interjected and on seeing that Ash was paying attention, he continued, “Teleport as an egg move is quite rare for a non-psychic type Pokémon”

“That’s awesome” Ash replied with enthusiasm.           

“There’s more” Oak continued, “The Pokédex is not just your ID, it also records your battles and calculate your earnings per victory and transfer to the money to your bank account”

He then took a small pouch from the table and handed it to Ash and said, “This is the complementary Beginners Package from the Indigo league, it has 5 Pokéballs, 5 Potions, 5 Antidotes, 5 Burn Heals, 5 Paralyze Heals, 5 Awakenings, 5 Ice Heals, and 1 Full Heal” 

“Thanks, Professor” Ash replied gratefully and quickly put away the items into their respective pockets in his trainer’s bag.

Professor Oak nodded and said, “Now, Good luck on your journey, Ash”

“Thanks, Professor” he replied and walked away from the lab, after returning Ramiel to his Pokéball.

Soon, Ash reached the main street and turned to his right and crossed the main route, dubbed Route 1 by Indigo League, and soon reached a small white-colored house, with a red slanting roof. It stood in a square plot surrounded by a white fence, which clearly marked the boundary of the property. He opened the kissing gate and entered the property and rang the doorbell, which was answered with a loud “Coming”, accompanied by the sound of a person walking towards the door, which was opened with a small click, revealing his mom, Delia Ketchum, who had a smile on her face on seeing him.

“How did it go, Ash?” She asked, her voice dripping with curiosity, as he entered the house.

“I got an Elekid and he’s amazing, Mom” Ash replied happily as they made their way to the dining room.

“Go on, let him out” she encouraged him and Ash released Elekid from his Pokéball in a flash of red light, who looked around curiously and suddenly became guarded on seeing Delia.

“Hey Ramiel, this is my mom” Ash introduced her to his starter Pokémon, who watching her carefully. She kneeled in front of him and soon reduced him into a giggling mess by gently scratching his chest, at the center of the lightning bolt mark.

“I suppose it’s time for you to leave” Delia said, with a sad undertone in her voice.

“Yeah, Mom” Ash replied with a smile and hugged her.

Delia quickly wiped her tears and said, “Now, I want both of you to take care of each other”

To which both nodded in tandem and left the house after another hug. However, instead of taking route 1 towards Viridian City, Ash turned to his right and took the road that led to the woods that bordered the town.

He walked through the woods with Elekid by his side till they reached the Pallet River that rushed to embrace the sea. They followed the river till they reached the estuary at the mouth of the river, which was home to his friend Tiamat, who he had befriended last year after he had a fight with Gary about the Pokéball they found while fishing.

Gary walked away from him with the rusted Pokéball, but he got the Pokémon that popped up after he walked away, the one who comforted him after he lost his best friend, one whom he kept a secret even from his mother. Just as she promised yesterday, Tiamat was waiting for him by the river bank.

When they met for the first time, the Horsea was about 0.3 M tall and weighed about 7.0 Kg, in short, she was the runt of her herd but now, she was nearly the size of a Seadra, at 1.0 M tall and her fins had become quite sharp, while her red eyes had started darkening, which was a clear sign that she getting ready for her evolution.

“Hey Tiamat” Ash greeted as he hugged the Horsea, who was patiently waiting for him.

“Horsea!” she exclaimed in happiness as he hugged her.

“Ramiel, I want you to meet Tiamat, we came here to collect her, Tiamat meet Ramiel, I just received him today from Professor Oak” he introduced the two to each other.

They stared at each other before greeting each other.

“Good, are you ready to go Tiamat?” Ash asked as he took out a Pokéball from his bag.

Seeing her nod in agreement, Ash tossed the Pokéball at her, which quickly captured her as she didn’t put up any resistance against the capture.

He took out his Pokédex and after activating the scan function, pointed it at the Pokéball.

'Scanning…....’

Horsea, the Dragon Pokémon. Horsea is the pre-evolved form of Seadra. If Horsea senses danger, it will reflexively spray a dense black ink from its mouth and try to escape. This Pokémon swims by cleverly flapping the fin on its back. Horsea is a Water-type Pokémon. This Horsea is a Female with the Ability Swift Swim and Hidden Ability Damp.

This Horsea is 1.0m tall and weighs 15kg.

Attacks: Smokescreen, Twister, Dragon Dance, Dragon Breath, Disable, Double Team, Water Gun, Water Pulse, Bubble Beam, Aurora Beam, Icy Wind, Focus Energy, Yawn, Brine and Signal Beam (Egg Move)’

“All right, it’s time for us to leave Ramiel, Return” he said, pointing the Pokéball at his Elekid, returning him to his Pokéball.

He then started walking along the bank of the river upstream, intending to cover at least half the distance to Viridian City by noon. He walked through the woods following the river, he could see Spinarak and Caterpie on trees trying their best to hide as they heard the flaps of wings of bird Pokémon.

Lost in the breathtaking beauty of the familiar woods, Ash soon made his way out of the woods by following the river, and soon, he reached the main route connecting Pallet Town to Viridian City. He could see Rattata and Zigzagoon scurrying away on hearing his footsteps, with a smile on his face he continued walking along the main route.

A few hours later, he decided that it was time for a break and made his way to a big tree on the riverside with sufficient shade. He proceeded to release both his Pokémon and said to Ramiel, “I have battled a few wild Pokémon with Tiamat over the past year and I am familiar with all of her attacks, I want to see what you can do.” He continued, “When I call out the attacks, I want you to hit the target that Tiamat is going to make, got it?”

To which Ramiel nodded. Seeing that his Pokémon was ready, Ash commanded, “Tiamat, I want you to concentrate Icy Wind on that rock to create an ice spike for Ramiel to practice his moves”

Tiamat nodded and let out a gust of concentrated gust of chilled air at the small rock and soon enough created an ice spike for Ramiel.

“Ramiel, I want you to Teleport to that spike and hit it with your ice punch attack” Ash commanded.

Ramiel quickly vanished and appeared near the rock using Teleport and hit the ice spike at the middle with his right fist that was encased with ice-type energy, causing a slight indent on the spike which was quickly frozen over by the discharged ice type energy.

“Very Good” Ash congratulated Ramiel and then commanded, “Teleport back to me and then use Thunder Shock on the tip of the Spike”

The Elekid quickly Teleported back to his trainer and released a decent-sized jolt of electricity that raced towards the spike and shattered the top half of the spike into a million pieces of ice.

“Good job Ramiel” Ash praised his Elekid and continued, “Now use Swift attack on the remaining part”  

On hearing the order, Ramiel jumped up and released a wave of yellow-colored stars at the remaining part of the spike, which was completely destroyed by the attack.  

“Very good Ramiel” Ash said and continued, “All your attacks are good but, I think Thunder Shock needs a bit of work.”

Elekid nodded on hearing Ash’s observation and suddenly his stomach rumbled, causing him to look embarrassed while his trainer and Tiamat snickered in amusement.

“I see you’re hungry, I guess it’s high time that we had our lunch” Ash said and took out two bowls from his bag. He filled one with the standard Electric-type food and the other with Water-type food and put it in front of Ramiel and Tiamat and then took out the burger that his mother had prepared for him and all three proceeded to have their food.

Once they had had their food, Ash picked up the bowls and put them into his bag and crumbled the paper used to cover the burger, and dumped it in the waste bin on the side of the road.

Ash then turned to his Pokémon who were chatting and said “I think It’s time we get going if we want to make it to Viridian City before it gets dark.” He then took out their Pokéballs and returned them into their respective Pokéballs and started walking towards Viridian City.

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Time Skip- A few hours later,

At the Entrance to Viridian City

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After a few hours of walking, Ash had made it to the main gate of Viridian City by sunset. On the surface, Viridian City looked like a normal city, but it was in fact a fortress, just like the eight major cities of Kanto that had a gym, it was guarded by Giovanni, the strongest gym leader in the region. He was the only gym leader in the entire league who was given the privilege to impose the restriction on his gym that prevented anyone with less than seven badges from challenging the gym.

He made his way to the ranger manning the gate and showed her his Pokédex and was granted entrance into the city. Viridian city was huge, with a lot of skyscrapers and buildings but it also had a lot of greenery, from the uncharted woods that were a part of Viridian Forest and the trees and plants were dispersed throughout the city, which was the reason why the city was called the Evergreen City of Kanto. Ash had visited Viridian City many a time with his mother and the city never failed to impress him. He followed the familiar path soon found the Pokémon Center and quickly entered the building. 

“Hello, Nurse Joy” Ash greeted the familiar nurse manning the reception desk.

 “Good evening, Ash, it’s been a while” she replied and continued in a professional manner, “How may I help you today?”

“Can you please check my Pokémon? and I would also like to reserve a room for the night” he answered.

“Sure” she replied and continued, “Can you give me your Pokédex, please”

Ash handed over his Pokédex, which she connected to her terminal and after a few seconds, she said, “I have assigned Room 10 A for the night, you just have to show the Pokédex screen at the scanner on the door”

“Thank you” Ash replied as he accepted his Pokédex back from the nurse.

“As for your Pokémon, I’ll take a look at them now. You will get a notification on your Pokédex once I’m done with the checkup and healing, if necessary”

“Sure” Ash replied and handed over the Pokéballs to the nurse, who left the desk to carry out her job and Ash made his way to the videophone booth and dialed his home number.

“Hello, this is the Ketchum residence.” Delia’s voice answered the call.

“Hey Mom!” he greeted her as soon as her face appeared on the screen.

“Hi, honey. Is everything okay? Where are you, Ash?”

“I’m fine mom, I’m actually at the Pokémon Center in Viridian City.” Ash replied.

“That’s great news Ashy!” she replied and enquired curiously, “Did you catch any Pokémon?”

“Yes, I managed to catch a Horsea” he replied proudly.

“The same one you have training in secret over the last year?” she teased.

“Yes……. Wait! How did you know?” he asked with embarrassment evident in his tone.

“A mother always knows son” she replied and on seeing his slumped look, she elaborated, “I saw you training in the woods after I noticed that your clothes had salt stains”

‘Ah! Probably when was trying to teach her Brine attack’ Ash thought to himself sheepishly and said, “I won’t be calling you for about two-weeks mom” he rushed on seeing that she was about to get angry, “I will be inside the Viridian Forest and I want to really get in sync with Ramiel before our gym match”

“Fine, I understand, I don’t like it but I understand, but you better call me once you’re in Pewter. Understood?” she said furiously and on seeing him nod fearfully, she continued, “Good Night son, I love you. Bye”

“Bye mom” Ash replied and disconnected the call.

Seeing that the Nurse was busy dealing with another trainer, Ash decided to call Professor Oak. He quickly dialed the private video phone number of Professor Oak.

“Hello, this is Professor Oak” the Professor answered the call.

“Hey, professor! You’re looking at the wrong camera” he said as he saw grey hair instead of Professor’s face appear on the screen.

“There we go,” he said as he corrected the camera and soon his face appeared onscreen. He then said, “I see you made it to Viridian City, judging by the number from which you’ve called”

“Yes, I just reached here a while ago and gave my Pokémon to Nurse Joy for a checkup” Ash replied.

To which Professor Oak asked, “Did you catch any new Pokémon? Gary said that you wouldn’t have a single new one by the time you got to Viridian City. I bet him a million dollars that he’d be wrong.”  

“I guess you’re richer by a million-dollar Professor, I caught a Horsea” Ash replied with an amused smile.

“Excellent” Professor Oak said with a grin on his face and asked,” Where did you find the Horsea?”

“Well, I found her by the river banks right outside Pallet” he replied.

“Hmmm, well you’re certainly lucky that you found such a rare Pokémon on your first day” Professor Oak commented, to which Ash just shrugged.

“I think I heard the doorbell, it’s probably my pizza. It was very nice talking to you, Ash, and good luck on your journey and don’t forget to register for the league at the Pokémon center” Professor Oak reminded him and quickly disconnected the call.

He then heard a buzzing from his Pokédex, the standard sound of a notification, on checking the notification, he found that it was from Nurse Joy and he quickly

left the phone booth and made his way to Nurse Joy, who perked upon seeing him and said, as she gave the two Pokéballs back to him, “Elekid and Horsea are fine”

“Thanks, Nurse Joy” Ash replied as he accepted the Pokéballs and asked, “Can you please register me for the Indigo League, please?”

“Sure, please give me your Pokédex” she replied and accepted the Pokédex when Ash took it out of his pocket and extended it towards her. After a few seconds of typing on her computer she gave back the Pokédex along with a case, on seeing his questioning look, she explained, “That is a complementary badge case provided to every trainer who registers for the league, it can hold gym badges from all the 15 official gyms in Kanto. You need at least 8 gym badges to qualify for the Indigo League.”

Ash gave a short nod indicating that he understood and quickly put away the badge case into his bag. He then approached the counter to the right side of the hall, the PokéMart, and brought supplies for two weeks for his journey through Viridian Forest. The exhausted trainer then made his way to the stairs that led to the rooms upstairs and quickly found his room 10 A and entered it using his Pokédex. He then proceeded to put his bag on the table by the bed. Just as he was about to remove his shoes, he heard a police announcement.

“Attention, citizens of Viridian City! Attention, citizens of Viridian City! We have reports about possible Pokémon thieves in our area! Be on the lookout for suspicious-looking strangers! Repeat - Be on the lookout for suspicious-looking strangers” followed by the loud wailing of the police siren.

‘Pokémon Thieves in Giovanni’s city!’ Ash thought to himself incredulously, ‘They are probably the biggest idiots in the region’

After having a bath and doing his laundry, Ash went down to have dinner at the cafeteria and fed his Pokémon at the feeding area reserved for Pokémon. He then came back to his room and decided to browse the Pokédex for training suggestions for Ramiel and Tiamat and soon decided to turn in for the night.

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Author’s Note

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Hey, it’s me, back after a very long time. I decided to restart the whole story to give it a better flow as my writing style has definitely changed a lot and this time around, there is an actual layout for the story, I’m not just shooting from the hip.  

Also, Ash is not going to catch every single Pokémon he encounters like in the previous version of the story. I’m planning on updating the story twice a month.

I hope all of you enjoyed the chapter, I’m a bit rusty, but hopefully, I’ll get better as we move forward with the story. Let me know what you thought of this chapter in your comments.

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