A/N: I'm sorry to everyone that is a fan of this story, the sporadic update schedule is entirely my bad, but I will continue this regardless of the time it takes me to finish it. Thanks as always to those who have been reading and reviewing, the feedback really helps me when I am working on the chapters of this so it's really appreciated.

this is the unbeta'd version of this chapter, once my beta is done the beta'd chapter will be posted to replace this.

As always, thanks to Uranium235 for beta'ing this story with his/her limited time, cause this chapter's original version is kind of evidence that I could use the help -_-".

Reviews:

Mmat: I am planning to have Ash meet up with at least a few of the characters as the story goes on, but I am definitely going to have him meet up with misty at some point, though I don't know when. Also, Ash will be capturing more pokemon than canon, though I won't be having him capturing the massive amounts that some people do since that is one of the cliché's about these stories that's always made them difficult for me to read. As for releasing pokemon, that one is something that I might or might not have happen depending on what passes in my mind for my muse. A lot of this story is being made up as I go along, so I don't really know where I'm going to end up taking this in the long run.

Dante R Vale: the problem with developing Cynthia is that if you look at her character, you will see that aside from being the champion of Sinnoh, we know almost nothing about her except for her interest in history, so it's kind of hard to characterize her when you take that fact away from who she is. I plan to try and have Cynthia develop of course, but it may be slow going since I'm not quite sure how to have her turn out, since I don't want to just make her a female Ash. If you or anyone else could provide more background information that has been given about her it would really help me with this though.

"Insert words here" normal voice

'Insert words here' thinking

"Insert words here" machine voice

"Insert words here" telepathy

Disclaimer: for once I don't have to do anything but say that I don't own pokemon.

Ch 1: A path towards the future (if you have suggestions for a better title pm me them)

In pallet town the mornings were usually very peaceful when compared to the larger towns and cities of the Kanto region, though this should be disregarded when one Ash Ketchum is involved in the equation. Such as this morning, where he could be seen running full tilt from his home towards the lab of Professor Samuel Oak, wearing only his pajamas and screaming about being late.

Today Ash had turned 10 and was now of age to begin his journey as a pokemon trainer after receiving his first pokemon and license from Prof. Oak. The pokemon that he was able to choose from would be a Squirtle, a water type pokemon that looked like a turtle. Bulbasaur, a small grass type that looked like a dinosaur with a flower bulb on it's back. And Charmander, a fire type looked like a lizard with a flame on the end of its tail.

Of course Ash had overslept due to him breaking his alarm clock in the middle of the night after staying up late. Ash was currently just down the hill that the lab stood at the top of when he was forced to stop by a boy about his own age, who stared at him condescendingly. This was Ash's former best friend and now rival, Gary Oak, the Grandson of Prof. Oak and one of the trainers that were starting their journey this year.

"bout time you got here Ashy boy" the boy said with a cocky smirk, "I already got my pokemon from grandpa" he said without losing his smirk for a moment.

"so which one did you choose?" Ash asked curiously, wondering about his rival's first pokemon.

"not that it's any of your business since you couldn't bother to show up on time, but I got the best pokemon that Grandpa had to offer, well glad that you were able to see me start my journey." Gary said with a arrogant sneer as he got into a car that was parked down the road before the car began driving down the road.

Ash looked close to bursting a blood vessel before the sound of someone clearing their throat made him turn around and instantly calm down.

Before him stood an older man who looked to be in his mid 50's, with a lab coat on. The look on the man's face was slightly intimidating, showing the experience the man was known to have, yet the man's face softened slightly and showed a kind smile that one would see on a grandfather's face. This was Professor Oak, the man Ash had come here to see in the first place.

"I see you decided to come after all Ash" Oak said with a chuckle, causing Ash to flush with embarrassment. Looking the boy over though, Oak stopped chuckling for a moment before his shoulders shook slightly with restrained laughter, "you sure you're ready? You look better suited to go to bed than train pokemon" he said causing Ash to have a sweat drop on the back of his head as he laughed nervously.

"well I had a bit of trouble, I kinda destroyed my alarm clock in the middle of the night" Ash said getting a look from Oak, who then shook his head in disbelief. "but, I'm ready to begin my journey" Ash said with a determined look.

With a nod, Oak motioned for Ash to follow him, and the trainer to be followed the professor into the lab at the top of the hill.

Inside Oak's lab…

Looking around, one could see all kinds of books, machines, and papers, all of theme being meant for the research of the man who owned them. In the center of the room, was a machine with three poke-balls seated in three slots.

Walking up to the machine, Ash noted that each of the poke-balls had a leaf, flame, and water droplet on them for their respective pokemon. With a nod Ash grabbed a poke-ball from it's slot.

"I though about it a lot and I decided that the pokemon I'll choose is Squirtle" Ash said as he opened the poke-ball with a droplet, to find it empty.

"that pokemon was already claimed by a trainer that was on time" Oak commented from where he stood off to the side as he watched Ash put the poke-ball back to grab another, this time the one with a leaf.

"ok, I'll choose Bulbasaur as my starter" Ash declared before he was let down once again by another empty poke-ball.

"that pokemon was also claimed by someone who was on time" Oak said while he watched the boy continue on and pick up the last poke-ball.

With an unnoticeable sigh, Ash held up the last poke-ball with a slight feeling of dread, "well no problem cause my pokemon will be Charmander" he was not nearly as surprised when this poke-ball turned out to be empty too.

"the early bird gets the worm, or in this case the pokemon" Oak said as the boy set down the poke-ball back in it's slot on the machine. He hadn't really thought it through, as he had known that there were no pokemon in the three poke-balls, due to the other three trainers that had come before Ash, though he had wanted to play a prank on Ash. He now regretted it seeing the downtrodden look as Ash turned to face him.

"so the pokemon were already gone?" Ash asked somewhat hurt by the prank that he'd been the victim of.

Seeing the look made Oak instantly regret playing such a mean trick on such a big day for the boy in front of him. "well I did have one pokemon left, but well…" Oak started before he was cut off by Ash in his renewed spirits.

"I'll take it professor!" Ash shouted making the old man jump slightly at the volume.

"hold on Ash, I should warn you about this one…" Oak tried to say before he was interrupted again.

"please professor, I gotta have a pokemon" Ash begged the man.

With a sigh, Oak walked over to the machine that held the poke-balls and pressed a button that was off to the side, which caused the center to open and display another poke-ball, this time with a lightning bolt on it. Oak lightly tossed the poke-ball, which opened and released a flash of light that soon took the shape of a small mouse.

The mouse was just over a foot tall and have a tail shaped like a lighting bolt. On it's cheeks were two red dots that would occasionally spark if one were to look closely. "chaaaa" the mouse said as it shook itself and stretched before looking around the room.

From where he stood by the professor, Ash looked at the mouse in front of him with amazement clear in his eyes. He quickly went over to look at the pokemon, who stared back at Ash.

Seeing Ash looking at the pokemon, Oak spoke up getting the attention of both the boy and the pokemon "This is Pikachu" he said as Ash looked back at Pikachu for a moment.

"it's the best one of all" Ash said as he looked at the mouse in front of him.

Pikachu looked at Ash, "pika…" the mouse said irritably as Ash picked him up.

"It's also known as the electric mouse pokemon, they're usually shy, but sometimes have an electrifying personality" Oak said before he was startled by the mouse shocking the boy holding him. After a few seconds, Ash fell to the floor and twitched a bit before he stood up.

"I see what you mean" Ash said with a groan before he looked at a few items that the professor held out to him with a curious expression.

"here these are your pokedex and poke-balls" Oak said as Ash grabbed them. Both seemed to forget Pikachu whose cheeks sparked from where Ash held him, before releasing a burst of electricity that shocked not just Ash but Oak as well.

Through his chattering teeth, Ash managed to speak up, "T-T-Thank Y-You!" Ash yelled unable to control the volume of his voice while being shocked.

Oak was having a similar problem, "YO-UR Welcome" He shouted before the shock from the mouse ended and both fell to the floor of the lab with a sigh of relief.

Outside the lab (20 minutes later)…

Ash looked at the crowd of people gathered up outside Oak's lab to see the trainers off. At the head of the crowd, Ash saw his mother waiting to greet him and see him off.

Seeing her son leaving the lab, Delia Ketchum greeted her son with a smile as she pulled him into a hug, much to her son's embarrassment. "I'm so proud of you Ash, you finally get to start your journey and fulfill you're dream" she said with her eyes watering slightly, "I'm going to miss you so much though" she said as Ash returned the hug his mother was giving him.

Beside the two, Pikachu stood there and seemed to make a comment that only he would understand "Pikachu" he said drawing the mother's attention to him.

"So this is your pokemon?" Delia asked as she looked down at the little mouse.

"that's my pokemon" Ash said before he had a bag handed to him that felt like it was packed full of things.

"I made sure to pack all the thing that you would need to make it until you can get to a store to buy more." Delia said with a smile.

"thanks mom" Ash said before Pikachu interrupted the moment Shocking everyone in the crowd.

With a slight cough, Delia looked at the mouse for a moment "there should be a pair of rubber gloves in there if you need them" seeing her son about to speak up she answered his unasked question "rubber doesn't conduct electricity" she said before Ash nodded and began to head out of town on his own journey with the crowd wishing him luck from where they lay on the road, most twitching occasionally.

Route 1...

"CHUU!" Pikachu protested as Ash proceeded to drag the stubborn pokemon behind him with a clothesline he had gotten out of the bag while wearing the rubber gloves his mother had mentioned, which saved him several shocks already.

They had been moving like this for the last half hour after leaving town, with Pikachu stubbornly fighting Ash the entire way.

"what's your problem Pikachu?!" Ash shouted finally getting fed up with the mouse's attitude.

"Pika!" the mouse shouted back with a glare.

"are you gonna be like this the whole way?" Ash asked which was answered with a quick 'pi' and a nod.

"is it because you don't like me?" Ash asked, hoping to make some kind of progress in bonding with the pokemon the professor gave him. Again he was met with confirmation from the mouse, causing him to sigh.

"well I like you, and your supposed to be the pokemon I'm training, so can't you just open your mouth and tell me what's wrong?" Ash asked, which Pikachu responded sarcastically by opening his mouth and trying to talk.

"well as a pokemon you should be like others and stay inside a pokeball" Ash said, holding up his pokedex which showed a picture of a poke-ball.

"while being trained, a pokemon usually stays inside it's poke-ball" the box said, somewhat shocking Ash since he figured he would have had to read it off or something.

"ya see?" Ash asked, hoping he had made his point.

To Ash's shock, Pikachu hopped into the air and pressed a button on the pokedex, causing another piece of information to come up on the screen.

"however there are many exceptions. Some pokemon hate being confined" the box stated again before Ash decided to remove the gloves and untie the clothesline around Pikachu's waist.

"this oughta make things better than" Ash commented, though he noticed Pikachu still glared at him.

"still not good enough?" Ash said with a frown before he was distracted by a noise a little away from him, and he spied a small bird. "a Pidgey

5 minutes later…

Ash couldn't help glaring at just about everything around him after the humiliation he just endured. He watched Pikachu laughing at him from the tree he had climbed.

With a snarl of frustration, Ash picked up a rock and chucked it into a flock of Pidgey like the one he had just failed to catch. The flock instantly scattered but he heard a cry of pain as he managed to get a better look at the bird he managed to hit. With a gulp he noticed the bird looked far meaner than Pidgey had, with a much angrier look than he had seen on the Pidgey even after he had tackled it.

Ash scanned the bird with his pokedex with a nervous look on his face, before long the box identified the bird for him.

"Spearow, the Tiny Bird Pokemon, unlike Pidgey, Spearow have a terrible attitude and may sometimes attack other pokemon and even humans, they are very territorial…" Ash had stopped listening to the box after hearing a cry of pain from Pikachu, who was being pecked at by Spearow, who had flown up to the tree the mouse was laying in.

"Hey Leave Pikachu alone!" Ash shouted before he remembered hearing from a couple of people that wild pokemon had a tendency to attack trainer owned pokemon unprovoked.

Spearow kept attacking Pikachu before the mouse finally had enough and released a shock that sent the bird crashing to the ground at the base of the tree before it rose with an even angrier glare on its face.

"SPEAR!" the wounded bird screamed as it took off to join a massive flock of bird that was gathering in the sky, a flock of Spearow, Ash noticed with growing horror at the sheer number of them.

Several of the birds swooped down and began pecking and clawing At Pikachu, causing the mouse to scream in pain and terror.

"leave him alone!" Ash yelled as he grabbed his backpack and began swinging it at the birds, managing to smack one of them away and causing the others to scatter for the moment.

Quickly replacing his backpack, Ash scooped up his pokemon and started to run after he looked at the flock of birds that were eying him now with just as much anger as they had Pikachu.

As Ash took off into the woods, he had no idea where he was going as the birds would occasionally manage to get a scratch on him or smash one of their hooked beaks into him. In spite of the pain, Ash kept running but skidded to a halt as he saw the forest split apart to reveal a steep cliff. He vaguely noted it was raining as he looked at the river below and saw the rain hit the water. The screeching of the birds made him panic as he saw the flock of Spearow starting to move in on him.

Without much else to do, Ash grabbed his backpack as the birds began to swoop down and swung it at them as best he could, hoping to scare them off somehow. As he swung, the rain began to soak into the ground underfoot and began to turn to mud, causing Ash to slip as he made one last swing at the birds.

With a scream of terror, Ash began to fall towards the water. With a loud splash, Ash surfaced and was immediately swept down the river, smacking into the rocks that littered the river as they crossed his path.

Throughout the ordeal, Ash had kept a firm grasp on the small electric mouse that he had started his journey with, though he was unaware that Pikachu was still conscious this whole time.

Pikachu watched as this human, who had known him for literally a day, Charged into a flock of Spearow and actually attacked them to get him free. He watched as this human carried him through the woods, knowing the Spearow were following, and even now as he was being battered against the rocks in this river, this human that he had treated terribly refused to relinquish his hold on him. Pikachu watched as Ash slowly started to lose consciousness and began shouting and pushing on his chest to keep him awake as the current of the river slowly started to deposit them somewhere.

Neither Ash nor Pikachu felt themselves being lifted and carried towards the shoreline as they had clearly lost consciousness.

5 minutes ago (in the woods nearby)…

She was walking back to her camp when she heard the sound of a pokemon shouting, the urgency in the pokemon's voice causing her to look around in alarm before she found the source of the sound coming from the river she had been using to get water. Looking to her right, she saw the pokemon that stood beside her looked equally shocked, confirming that it had heard it as well.

Breaking into a run towards the river, she was horrified when she saw a boy who looked a few years younger than her being carried down the river by the current, clutched to his chest she noticed a flailing yellow lump, which she recognized immediately as a Pikachu, shouting and pounding on the boys chest.

Seeing where the river would carry them, she began running down the edge of the river, taking care not to slip and fall into the river herself. Her pokemon ran alongside her, both of them rushing to make it to where the two would be washed ashore.

Finally reaching the shoreline, she saw the boy getting carried, but was worried when she saw that the boy was still to far into the river for the water to carry him up to the shore, so he would just be swept further down the river, which would likely kill the boy and then the Pikachu not long after.

Acting quickly, she grabbed and threw a poke-ball into the air "Milotic, Save them!" she shouted as a pokemon appeared before it disappeared into the water. She was relieved when she saw the boy stop moving down the river, indicating Milotic had caught them the boy then slowly moved towards where she stood on the shore. As they neared the shore, the pokemon became visible, revealing a long serpentine body that had perfect skin, the pokemon had two long hair like appendages that extended from its head.

The pokemon deposited the boy safely and gently on the shore, taking care that he wouldn't be swept up by the current again.

"thank you Milotic, you can rest now" the pokemon nodded as her trainer held up her poke-ball and vanished into it with a flash of red. Now that the trainer got a closer look at the two, she was shocked at the state of the boy and his pokemon. The boy was covered in scratches with the occasional one that looked larger than the others. The Pikachu was similarly injured, though it seemed like the boy had wounds like he had been attacked while shielding the little mouse. Looking at her pokemon she nodded.

"Gabite would you carry them back to the camp?" she asked, though the now named Gabite had already picked the two up and, taking care not to aggravate the wounds, began to carry them towards the camp they had been staying at.

Within a few minutes, the trainer and pokemon had arrived back at the camp, which was thankfully shielded from the rain due to the massive trees that covered the clearing with their branches. The trainer than began to look around for a first-aid kit, since she knew she had one on hand at all times.

After a few minutes of searching, she found it and returned to looking over the injuries of the two, whom were now laying on her sleeping bag after Gabite had placed them on the ground. Carefully removing the torn and barely held together vest, she began to assess the injuries on the boy as she treated them with what supplies she had.

Once the boy was in a state that his life wasn't in any immediate danger, she turned her attention to the Pikachu and began treating the pokemon as well.

Once the pokemon was treated and no longer was wincing in pain at every moment, she then began looking for some form of identification so that she could find out just who she had saved. After searching the vest she had removed, she discovered a pokedex like the one that trainers were given by professor Oak upon starting there journey.

Opening the box, she pressed a couple buttons before a picture of the boy was displayed on the screen and the voice of the machine began giving her the information she was looking for.

"I am Dexter. A Pokedex programmed by Professor Oak for Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum of the town of Pallet. My function is to provide Ash with information and advice regarding Pokémon and their training. If lost or stolen, I cannot be replaced." the box read off with the monotonous tone of voice that was seen in all of the pokedex models.

Making a mental note to contact the professor later, she set down the pokedex and the vest beside the boy 'Ash' she mentally corrected herself.

With a sigh of relief she went and sat down to wait for Ash and Pikachu to wake up, idly wondering what might have happened if she hadn't found them.

Neither she nor Ash knew the consequences this turn of events would have on the world, or their lives. Though if one were to ask, neither one of them would ever have wanted things to play out differently.

That's the rewritten chapter 1,

I felt even when I was typing this the first time I would need to redo it,

In all honesty it was meant to start the story more than anything, so I am hoping this rewrite will be more entertaining to read.

I honestly don't know how well I did at making this so as always I really appreciate reviews, and any questions are welcome since it actually helps me find motivation on the story to answer them.

This is something I was hoping to bring up, but I am hoping more people will be voting in the polls so they aren't so one-sided.

So in addition to the usual, please vote in the poll, since I don't know how much longer it will be kept open. And as usual, Constructive criticism is welcome and if you have a suggestions for pokemon than please pm me with them.

Thanks for reading,

Akkeiton