Chapter 1: The Start of a Legend

"Winging it." – Speech

Totally winging it – Thoughts/Messages

Yikes this is bad – Pokedex

"Congratulation Ash Ketchum, you've officially graduated from Pallet Pokémon School." An old, weary voice said. Ash looked up from the wooden floor he had been staring at and into dark grey eyes. Professor Oak always congratulated the top 3 students from Pallet Pokémon School, and since Ash came 2nd, just coming behind Gary Oak, it's only natural he was congratulated from the great Professor Oak. Pallet Pokémon School is known all throughout Kanto for its production of great trainers every year. It's also known however for giving the top 3 students the official starters of Kanto. Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur.

Ash nodded at Professor Oak as he accepted his red Pokedex. He looked to his left to meet the smug face of Gary Oak looking down at him. Ash's eye twitched before facing the crowd again.

"And Congratulations Leaf Green, you've officially graduated from Pallet Pokémon School." She accepted the red Pokedex with a large smile. The teachers, younger students and parents applauded for the top 3 students, as Professor Oak continued with what he was saying,

"Now as you know, it's the school's tradition to give the top 3 students the official Kanto starters." Professor Oak walked up to Gary and looked him in the eyes, a proud gleam prominent in Professor Oak's eyes.

"Since Gary Oak here has graduated top of his class, he has the first choice of which starter here would like." Professor Oak signalled to the side of the stage for his assistant to come out. The lab assistant came out rolling a trolley with 3 poke balls on it. Before Professor Oak could start explaining, Gary had already reached out and grabbed the poke ball with a water droplet imprinted on it.

"I already know which Pokémon I want so you can quit it with explaining Gramps." Gary arrogantly stated. Professor Oak gave Gary a look of disapproval before facing the audience with a smile.

"As I was going to say before being rudely interrupted, each poke ball has a different Pokémon inside. The symbol on the poke ball indicates which, the one that Gary has chosen was the water type Kanto starter Squirtle. This was signified by Water droplet imprinted on the red part of the poke ball." Ash was slightly saddened to find that the water-type Pokémon already taken. Professor Oak then gestured to the Poke ball with the flame on it. "This poke ball contains the fire Kanto starter, Charmander. This one," he said as he then gestured to the poke ball with the leaf symbol. "is the grass Kanto Starter Bulbasaur." Professor Oak looked cheerfully at Ash and beckoned for him to take a poke ball. Ash looked at the poke balls left, trying to figure out which would be the best starter Pokémon. Who would be best suited for me?

Ash reached for the poke ball with the flame symbol, after all Charmander was always his second choice if getting a Squirtle didn't work out. Professor Oak smiled his grandfatherly smile before handing the last poke ball to Leaf, whose face was full of joy over being handed the grass types poke ball. "Can we have one last round of applause for our top 3 students of this year. I'm sure that you're going to see them as strong, capable trainers in the future." The crowd cheered for the students as they left the stage holding their poke balls.

Ash looked at his poke ball one last time before stepping off the stage. He couldn't help but smile since after today, he will finally begin his journey.

Ash woke up to the sound of his mother yelling, "Breakfast's ready!" He got up from his bed and got dressed into his clothes. A red singlet with a plain black jacket over the top, black trousers and red running trainers. Lastly, he put on his trusty league cap his father had given him as a gift before he disappeared. He grabbed Charmander's poke ball and put it on his belt, then continued out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen.

Swiftly moving down the stairs, Ash sat down on the table and started eating his Unova styled breakfast, Tepig bacon and Pidove eggs. "Morning Honey, are you excited to start your adventure?" His mothers soft voice entered his ears as he finished his last piece of bacon. Ash nodded to his mother as she looked at him curiously, he really didn't want to leave his mother. After all, she was his mother. All his life he had always had her by his side, comforting him when his father left for the Hoenn region to 'research' the Sea Basin legendary and when he felt like the pressure of school was getting to him. He heard a boisterous bark from the doorway, dragging him out of his thoughts. Turning to the sound, he found a large grey and black dog. Hmm, I do need Pokémon registered for my Pokedex, so I might as well. Ash pointed the Pokedex at the dog.

Mightyena, the Bite Pokémon. This Pokémon usually reaches the average height of 1 metre and should weigh about 37kg. Mightyena is native to the Hoenn region and is known to hunt in packs in the wild to kill their prey. Mightyena will only listen to orders if they respect their trainers. There also known to lick faces of the people their fond of. This Mightyena is larger than average.

Delia's Mightyena growled at the Pokedex. Ash quickly put it away not wanting to upset the Pokémon any further. Ash finished his breakfast, got up and grabbed his travel bag. He looked back at his mum; she already knew what was coming. "Oh honey, I'm so proud of you." You could see her eyes getting misty, "Make sure to call me at least once a month, I know you won't be able to do it once a week because I know that's how you are." The corners of Ash's mouth twitched up, turning it into a smile.

"Yes mother." He replied. He looked at Mightyena and nodded respectively to the powerful wolf. Mightyena stared at Ash for a few seconds before licking the back of his hand. Ash said on final goodbye to his mother and Mightyena before closing the door and continuing down on the dirt road that would lead to the gates of Pallet Town and towards route 1.

Ash continued down the road, keeping a look out for a good place to set up camp for the rest of the day. He kept walking down route 1 seeing nothing but Pidgey's, Ratatta's and the occasional Spearow. Ash glanced up to see the sun right on top of him. I have to set up camp sooner or later, can't continue being fussy. Following his train of thought, Ash put down his bag and grabbed out a few utensils needed for camping. He then grabbed Charmander's poke ball and unshrunk it. Hopefully I can make a good first impression.

"Come on out, Charmander!"

In a bright, white light, a bipedal orange lizard appeared. Blue eyes opened and took in the new surroundings before finally settling on its new trainer. Ash crouched down before presenting his palm face up towards Charmander. Charmander stared at Ash's hand for a few seconds before leaning forward and rubbing its head against it.

Ash smiled before speaking, "Hello there Charmander, my names Ash." Charmander chirped backed as it continued to rub its head against Ash's hands.

"Now Charmander, I want to become one of the strongest trainers in the world, so to get there I'll need your help," Charmander nodded understanding settling into its eyes, "But for now, we need to train up for the Pewter City Gym extra hard because you aren't exactly strong against rock types. Now, I need to scan you with my Pokédex right now to see your moves."

Ash brought his Pokedex out from his jacket and placed it in front of Charmander, pressing the blue button.

Charmander, the Lizard Pokémon. Charmander is a very stubborn Pokémon which thrives for a good battle. The flame on its tail indicates its health and mood, when the Pokémon is healthy it burns brightly, weakly when exhausted and wavers when its happy. This Charmander is male with the ability Blaze and has the moves: Scratch, Growl, Ember and the Egg Move Counter which has yet to be learnt.

Ash smiled and pet the top of Charmander's head. "Wow, I'm really impressed with you Charmander. You already know Ember as well as have an egg move?" You could see Charmander's ego stretch as he puffed his chest out in pride.

"Now come sit next to me Charmander. We need to see what kind of moves you can learn to help you." Said Ash as he pats the spot next to him. Charmander trotted over to Ash before rubbing his head against Ash's unused hand signifying, that he wants to be pet. Ash chuckled as he started rubbing Charmander head. They sat the for a while, Ash rubbing Charmander's head as he scrolled along Charmander's move list on his Pokedex.

Ash put his Pokedex away, he started explaining Charmander's training schedule. "Now Charmander we must increase your stamina, the strength of your moves, your defence against moves, especially water, and speed. However, at the moment we should teach you a move that will help you in future battles." Charmander nodded excitedly, as Ash continued. "The move I've chosen for you to learn is Smoke Screen since right now you aren't the fastest, you'll need a way to hide yourself from your opponents." Charmander nodded as Ash continued the explanation on how to start learning Smoke Screen.

"Ok Charmander, that's enough." Ash shouted as he finished putting together their dinner for the night. Charmander stumbled over, exhausted after all his hard work. As Charmander looked at the food prepared in front of him, his stomach started rumbling quite loudly. Ash chuckled as he set the food down, "Well don't just stand there, dig in!" Without any further hesitation, Charmander started scoffing it down nearly choking with how fast he was eating. Ash watched Charmander, smiling as he did so. They sat there for a bit, finishing up their dinner before Ash started cleaning up their utensils and getting ready for sleep. "Hey Charmander," Ash started, "would you rather sleep in your pokéball?" Charmander looked to be contemplating the question before shaking his head.

As they both were ready to fall asleep, Ash in his sleeping bag and Charmander as close as he could get to Ash without burning anything with his flaming tail. I'll have to invest in some fire-proof equipment if I'll be having anymore fire type Pokémon. Though I hope I'll be getting a water-type Pokémon soon. That was his last though as he fell into slumber.

Ash woke as his watch started to vibrate against his wrist. He groggily opened his eyes and turned the alarm off. Stretching his muscles, he looked over to his left to find Charmander still fast asleep. His mouth twitched upwards as he carefully stroked Charmander's surprising smooth skull. Charmander's eyes twitched open at the gentle touch and chirped a greeting at Ash as he too, started stretching his muscles.

"Why don't you wake up by doing a few laps around the camp?" Charmander chirped in agreement to the question as he started to run around the camp, "Just make sure not to tire yourself out!" Ash called out to Charmander as he slowed his run to a steady paced jog.

It was half an hour later that Ash finally finished getting everything set up at ready for their journey today. Ash waved a puffed out Charmander over. "Charmander while were out in the wild I can keep you out of the Pokéball if you desire. However," Ash started seriously, "If we get to a city, I need to put you back in your Pokéball ok?" Charmander tilted his head in question. Ash smiled at the cute gesture from the orange lizard. "You have to know that very few people have the chance to be able to get a special Pokémon like you, so, because of that many people would jump at the chance to try and steal you away from me." The fire-type cried out as he jumped into Ash's arms. Ash stumbled with the sudden weight in his arms but quickly recovered and started trying to calm to lizard. "I know Charmander. That's why we must get strong, to not only become the best trainer there is but to also protect ourselves and the people we love."

After a few more reassuring comments, they started to set off the last stretch of Route 1 and to Viridian City. Sadly, there were still no Pokémon which interested Ash but at least he got to continue training up Charmander on the way by checking Charmander's reflexes. He did this by suddenly shouting out a command at a random time. E.g: Shouting to do an Ember attack at a rock on the side of the road when they were just chatting calmly. It took a while for Charmander to get on use to this training method, but it definitely improved his reflexes to commands.

"Hey! You there!" Ash spun around to the sudden voice which addressed him to find a boy. The boy stood there, maybe a few years older than Ash himself. Brown hair covered mostly with a baseball cap, plain white top and cargo shorts. He looked pretty ordinary other than the Pokéballs situated on his belt. "You graduated top 3 from Pallet School, right?" he called out. Ash nodded as the scaled on Charmander's body seemed to sharpen ever so slightly. The unnamed boy grabbed the a pokéball off of his belt and enlarged it, "Lets battle! I always find you graduates so arrogant, thinking that since you have a rare Pokémon you rule the world!" You could practically hear the bitterness ooze from his voice.

"Charmander." The fire lizard turned to the soft, whispered voice, "This is going to be our first battle. So, all I want from you this battle is to try your hardest; it doesn't matter if you lose just make sure you give a good fight." Charmander nodded, a determined glint in his dark blue eyes, he wanted to show its trainer that he didn't have to worry. He was going to be the best Pokémon Ash could've asked for.

"It'll be a 1v1, I'll go with my weakest Pokémon. After all, you are just a newbie trainer." The boy stated smugly. Ash could see Charmander was getting angry as his scales were getting sharper and more rigid as well as his pupils contracting ever so slightly into slits. "Alright, shall we get started?" Ash said looking at the trainer. Charmander ran forward as he got into a battle stance. The boy smirked and release his Pokémon with a cry of, "Come forth and battle."

A Pokémon stood there, well obviously it's a Pokémon, but it wasn't a Pokémon Ash recognised from his studies at Pallet Pokémon School. It was a small pink cat with squinted eyes and had a tail which puffed into a fluff of pink at the end. The tail also seemed to have 3 small yellow balls extending from it. Ash grabbed his pokédex from his pocket and pointed it at the pink cat.

Information Unavailable Please Upgrade Pokédex for new Information

So, it's not from the Kanto region. Ash thought as he watched the cat carefully. And most likely not from Johto since I studied most of the Pokémon there as well. "Since you are so uninformed, I guess I'll just have to educate you. This Pokémon is called Skitty and comes from the Hoenn region," Ash curiosity sparked as the word, 'Hoenn', was mentioned, "and is a normal type. Hopefully, that's enough to make this fair for you?" The boy finished arrogantly. Ash's eye twitched, slowly getting fed up of this boy's personality.

"Lets just get on with this already." Ash called out, trying to get this battle done and over with. He really just wanted to get to Viridian City by night fall. The boy smirked as he called for Skitty to get ready. Even if this isn't the ideal first battle Ash would've wanted, versing a Pokémon he isn't familiar with, he couldn't help but shiver with excitement.