Ash fidgeted nervously as he waited on the stoop outside the professor's lab. It was 6:59. He'd been there since 6:23 that morning, which, considering he usually woke up at seven, was an odd sight for the Pidgey that called Pallet their home. However, as it was the day he would get his first Pokemon you could forgive him for his excitement. At exactly 7:00 the lab would open, and one hour later ten young teens from Pallet and the surrounding area would be given a Pokemon to start their journeys with.

Years ago, Ash had been told, it was only three that were typically given Pokemon from the region's professor, chosen arbitrarily rather than on merit and at the age of ten rather than 15. However, a few years before Ash was born people began to speak out against the prevalence of Pokemon abuse and abandonment, so the rules changed. It was quite simple really (or at least it was when it was all you knew)—the Kanto government kept a log of each Pokemon family, sorted by how much power each beginning evolution had on average, including Pokemon from other regions, and at the age of 15 each beginning trainer who passed an exam was offered one of the bottom twenty Pokemon and allowed to catch one other Pokemon in the wild or be given one as a gift until they got their first gym badge.

After the first two gyms, trainers were allowed another Pokemon from the next twenty on the list, as well as another wild or gifted Pokemon, and after three gyms the restrictions were lifted and Pokemon trainers were finally allowed to catch more than one Pokemon between each gym—but they could not, unless employed in certain jobs such as gym leader, have more than 12 Pokemon total, to avoid Pokemon neglect. If they wished to no longer use an already owned Pokemon, it could be given to a professor or anyone else who had more than three badges or an empty slot.

A system remarkable for its efficiency and efficacy, it had already been adopted by both Sinnoh and Johto as well as its founder Kanto, but at the moment Ash didn't care about all the details and effort which had gone into making it work. All he cared about right now was that in a little more than an hour he would be allowed to have his first Pokemon, and with that Pokemon Ash felt he would be unstoppable.

Finally, he heard jangling coming from the other side of the door and stood, turning in time to see Professor Oak fussing with his keys as he opened the door—while most other scientists used keypads and similar, Professor Oak had always been old fashioned.

"Hi Professor!" Ash said, and then laughed as the professor jumped a little and made an odd sort of noise in surprise. Recovering, Oak blinked again as he took in Ash's presence and realized just how ahead of time the teen was.

"Oh, hello Mr. Ketchum. You're here a bit early, aren't you?"

"Yes Professor! I just couldn't wait!" Ash grinned.

"Well then, why don't you come in and we'll wait for the others to arrive."

It was not the first time he and the Professor had met—the Professor had spoken at Pallet Basic Education, the school for those under 15, a few times, and Ash had taken a summer job the previous year to work in the lab's corral with a few other students, so he'd met the Professor then too. However the two were not exactly close, so they simply sat in companionable silence as they waited for the future trainer's peers to arrive.

Over the next hour, trainers began to trickle in—one of the first was Leaf, who Ash had met while working in the corral. He moved over to her and they talked in low voices about which Pokemon they would choose if given the chance. Leaf's choice surprised Ash—she wanted a Sunkern, a notoriously weak Pokemon, as her starter. She said that she thought it wasn't given enough credit, and Ash wished her the best, knowing that if anyone could she would be able to turn the tiny seed Pokemon into a powerhouse. Ash kept his own wishes to himself, not wanting to jinx it. He did admit that he'd done a lot of research about the potential of each Pokemon, and wanted to focus on that when selecting.

As time wore on teens from more distant areas, who had to give themselves more leeway to arrive on time, also showed up, as well as nearby trainers who raced in as the minutes drew to a close, including one still in his pajamas, and of course Oak's own grandson, Gary.

Gary and Ash had not gotten along since the first time the two had met. On the first day at Pallet Basic Education Gary had spent the entire time being fussed over for being the grandson of someone so famous and important, while Ash had been sent to the corner for being too noisy. This pattern continued over the years, with the animosity between the two growing in proportion to Gary's preferential treatment. It wasn't as if Ash was perfect—he knew he wasn't, and on that first day he probably had been too noisy—it was just that Gary wasn't either, no matter how much adults tried to treat him like he was.

His peers definitely agreed with Ash, considering most went out of their way to avoid talking to Gary when he finally did deign to make an appearance. The young teen took it in stride however, and went to the back of the room to talk to his grandfather, who was making the final preparations for the event.

Finally the hour hand of the clock shifted to "VIII" and the selection ceremony could begin. Professor Oak had lined up 14 pokeballs, which was a reasonably good selection. It was one they were unlikely to get in other towns, where gym leaders were typically the ones in charge of obtaining suitable Pokemon and generally did not spend much time trying to give the youngsters variety. In front of each pokeball was a small folded index card with the name of the Pokemon within the corresponding pokeball written.

Ash quickly skimmed through the choices—there was a Sunkern, so Leaf should be happy, an Azurill, a Kricketot, a Caterpie, Weedle, and Wurmple, a Ralts, a Magikarp, a Scatterbug, a Pichu, an Igglybuff, a Wooper, a Tyrogue, and a Poochyena. Many of the Pokemon weren't even available in Kanto naturally so Ash suspected that the Professor had traded with other regions' professors to get the myriad he did. The other thing that Ash noticed was that there was only one of each Pokemon. That was worrying—if you didn't choose first, the one you wanted could be taken away. And there was one Pokemon that Ash definitely wanted.

Ralts.

Not only were Gardevoir and Gallade powerful Pokemon, and fairy and psychic types great against many other future powerful opponents like dragon types, but Ralts was also able to learn how to teleport, which could be a great boon to any new trainer.

Ash needed to get that Pokemon, he could feel it. That Pokemon was the beginning of him becoming the greatest trainer of all time, of him accomplishing his dream of being the youngest—and greatest—champion Kanto had ever seen. But there was a problem. The order in which new trainers chose their partner was determined by the "FPTE"—the Final Pokémon Trainer Exam—which he had taken two weeks ago. Not one of the ten trainers in the room knew what their score was yet—including Ash.

Gary had been on an ego trip since the exam, convinced that there was no way he could get anything but a perfect on the test and that no other trainer could hope to rise to his level. Leaf had told Ash that she felt that she had done well, but was adopting a wait and see policy. Ben, a young boy who was great at math and science but not much else, was convinced he got the lowest score of the trainers who passed, but Ash thought a more likely candidate was Joey, who had looked as if he had given up half way through and who Ash was genuinely shocked had passed at all—not all who took the exam did.

Out of his own class of fifteen, fourteen had opted to take the exam and he knew that the ten in this room as well as an additional trainer, who had opted to use a family raised Feebas as her first Pokemon, were the only ones who'd been granted a trainer's license—on the first try, at least. Due to the necessity of Pokemon for many jobs Kanto citizens were allowed to attempt the test as many times as they wanted, but they could only retake it once a year.

Professor Oak waited until all of the trainers had lined up in a row directly parallel to the table on which the pokeballs lay and then cleared his throat. Everyone fell silent as they turned their gaze on the row of 14 perfectly aligned pokeballs.

This.

This moment here. This was when everything would change.