Author Notes: I decided on writing a journey story, so this is it. If you have any worries about A Master Rises I havn't abandoned it I just want to write this one as well. I will probably update A Master Rises sometime this week so be on the look out for it.

Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, word.

" Nidorino begins the battle with a horn attack! Oh, but Gengar bounces right back with Hypnosis. And there it is the hypnosis power of Gengar!" The broadcaster on the television bellowed in excitement as he announced the battle between Elite four member's Agatha and Bruno.

Far across the country of Kanto in a small town named Pallet a ten-year old boy watches the battle between elites on his t.v. with a fierce look in his eyes. The boy stood about 5-feet tall and had messy raven black hair, the results of always wearing a hat. He had somewhat of a tan, white but definitely not pale. Finally the time has come. Now that I am ten, I can finally get my Pokemon license. Tomorrow my journey begins.

The boy stood inches away from his television screen, carefully analyzing the battle unfolding in front of him. Tomorrow is my first step in becoming a pokemon master. I Ash ketchum, will go farther than anyone has ever gone before.

Ash looked at his clock and noticed the time, 10:00 p.m. he understood that in order for him to be successful on his first day he was going to need to get a good night's rest. Just as this thought crossed his mind he heard the door to his room open.

"Ash Ketchum what are you doing up right now, you should already be asleep!" Standing in the doorway was a woman probably somewhere in her mid-thirties. She had long brown hair, and was wearing a pink blouse and a blue skirt that ended at her knees.

"I was just thinking the same thing Mom. I'm about to go to sleep right now."

Ash's mother Delia sighed before taking the remote to the television out of her son's hand. "Well, since you're still awake, a few more minutes shouldn't make a difference." She changed the channel, and on the screen was a man that looked to be in his mid-fifties wearing a lab coat.

"Professor Oak is doing a short special on the Kanto region starters, watch this before going to bed you might learn something." Delia stated in a soothing tone.

"Sure Mom, I might as well." As soon as Delia exited the room Ash turned the television off. Over the last couple months he had already done extensive research on the three starters and didn't see the point in exhausting himself any longer. I already know which one I want.

Before shutting off the lights to his room Ash made sure to set his alarm clock to 7:00 o'clock a.m. an hour before he had to be at Professor Oak's lab to receive his first pokemon.

Ash than turned off the lights and made his way over to his bed carefully, making sure to avoid stepping on any of the clutter that was spread out throughout his room.

Once under the covers he felt himself slowly drift off into slumber. Before passing out one final thought crossed his mind. I'll keep my promise no matter what Dad. I will become the best, and I will beat you.

*Errrrrrrrrrrrr! Errrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!* Ash groggily turned his head as he looked at his Voltorb replica alarm clock, it read 7:00 o'clock.

Ash jumped out of his bed in excitement. Yes! Today is the day. The raven haired boy hastily sprinted out of his room and made his way down the hall and into the bathroom.

He grabbed a towel off of the rack and hung it over the metal rod that held the shower curtain in place. The boy stripped himself of his pajamas and hopped in the shower.

After a quick 3 minute shower Ash grabbed the towel and proceeded to dry off. He then made his way back to his room where he grabbed a plastic shopping bag filled with the clothes that he had picked out with his mother the previous day.

The first items he grabbed were a pair of underwear and his brand new grayish colored jeans. He quickly put on both pieces of clothing. He then pulled out a fresh pair of white nike socks that he pulled up to about the middle of his calves.

The next couple of things he pulled out of the bag were a plain navy blue t-shirt and a black jacket. He pulled the navy blue shirt over his head and then put on the jacket.

Ash than grabbed the last three items out of the shopping bag. The first of the three was a pair of black suede nike shoes that were not quite pure running shoes but should be comfortable enough throughout his journey. The second item was an official trainer's belt, it was black in color and had 6 metal slots that allowed you to clip six pokeballs on it. The last of the three items was his favorite, a black snap back hat with a purple masterball logo just above the brim.

Once Ash finished up getting dressed he grabbed his official pokemon league backpack that his mother had filled with all of the essential things he would need until he reached Viridian. He then made a short trip to the bathroom one more time to make sure he looked alright.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Ash was pleased with his new clothing. After the short look over he made his way downstairs where his mom greeted him with a nice breakfast. After finishing his breakfast he got up from the table and walked on over to the front door before his mother called out to him.

"Honey, I'll meet you at professor Oak's in about a half an hour. Don't leave before I get there I want to see you before you leave."

"Ok, mom sounds good. I'm going to get going," Ash left his house with a large grin on his face. I guess it's time to go get my first pokemon.

As Ash approached the front door to Professor Oak's lab several thoughts came rushing through his head. I can't believe that it's finally happening. Behind this door will be my first pokemon. I just hope that the one I want is still here.

The raven haired trainer gave the front door a couple of hard knocks. After a few seconds of waiting the door opened and Ash was greeted by a handsome older looking man with a white lab coat on. "Ah Ash! It's great to see you again my boy, you're the first one to show."

Ash was surprised by that, he thought that at least Gary would have gotten here by now. "Hey professor! By the way where's Gary? I thought that he would for sure be the first one here."

Professor Oak let out a light chuckle. "Well Ash, it is only 7:30 and everyone was told to be here by 8:00. He's probably at my son's house rolling out of bed as we speak."

Ash scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, for getting here so early Professor I was just really excited."

"Now now Ash no need to apologize, being early is a great habit to have. Why don't you come on inside so we can get you started." Professor Oak waved the young boy to follow him as he led him down the hall and into a large fascinating room.

Ash looked at his surrounding's in awe. Inside of the room there was a bunch of complicated looking equipment pushed up against the walls. While in the middle of the room was a large circular machine that had three slots on top of it each holding a pokeball.

All three of the pokeball's had a red upper half, while the lower half was white. In the center of each pokeball was a large white button. This wasn't a surprise to Ash since all standard pokeballs had the same appearance.

What Ash found interesting was the fact that all three of the pokeball's had a different sticker located just above its button. One a small flame sticker, another had a small leaf sticker, and the last one had a small cascade sticker.

"Professor Oak, what's with the sticker's?" Ash asked even though he already had a good idea what the answer was going to be.

"Well my lad, they each represent which type of starter is in the pokeball. The one with the flame sticker is a Charmander, the one with the leaf sticker is a Bulbasaur, and the one with the cascade sticker is a Squirtle." Professor Oak answered.

"That's what I thought." Ash replied in an excited tone.

"Well now that I've explained which ball is which, do you know which one you want?" Asked the professor in a curious tone.

Ash smirked. "Of course, I've done a lot of research on all three of them and decided a couple months ago that I want to start out with a Charmander."

Professor Oak smiled before reaching for the pokeball with the flame insignia. He then pressed the button in the middle releasing a brilliant flash of bright red light.

Emerging from the light was a small orange lizard pokemon. It stood on two legs and was somewhere around 2 feet tall. Its eyes had a bluish hue and the tip of its tail was covered with a bright strong flame. The Charmander also had sharp claws on the tips of both its fingers and toes.

Charmander looked around the lab in a curious way. Once he caught glimpse of Ash he understood what was going on. After such a long wait he had finally been chosen by a trainer.

Ash bent over and studied Charmander with a grin on his face. He then carefully reached out and picked up the small young lizard pokemon. Once Ash was positive that Charmander didn't mind he proceeded to ask it a question. "Hey little guy, my name is Ash and I'd like to be your friend and trainer. Would you like that?"

Charmander didn't know what it was but there was something about Ash that made him warm inside. He felt safe in his arms and wanted nothing more than to be his friend. Charmander smiled and nodded back at Ash giving him the answer he was looking for.

Ash laughed and smiled back at Charmander. He's so cute, and I just know I can make him strong I couldn't ask for a better starter. "Well Charmander I'm glad you feel that way, were going to do great things together. Now I'm going to have to put you back in your pokeball for now but, I promise to let you out as soon as possible."

Charmander nodded his head in agreement. Ash took Charmander's pokeball from Professor Oak and pressed the button in the middle. A beam of red light shot from the pokeball and connected with charmander returning him to his red and white sphere.

Professor Oak had a large grin on his face "Well it looks like you made the right choice Ash, Charmander seems to really like you."

Ash had a similar look. "I think were perfect for each other."

"Ok, so now that you've got your first pokemon there are a few more things that I must give you." Professor Oak had Ash follow him over to a large cabinet. The professor than opened up one of the cabinet doors, pulling out some sort of device and five brand new pokeballs.

"Here are five pokeball's for you to use at the start of your journey. And this is the pokedex' it is pretty much an electronic- encyclopedia for pokemon in the Kanto region. It can be used to identify pokemon and give you information on them, as well as scan pokemon to find out what moves they know. It also serves as your trainer id so you will need to use it to register for the pokemon league."

Ash wasn't surprised because he had done a bunch of research on what the pokedex' did and knew they were handed out to every trainer when they started their journey. Never the less he thanked the professor. But, the next thing the professor did was a complete and utter shock.

"There is something else I want to give you." The professor opened up another cabinet and pulled out some sort of glass contraption with a large blue and white spotted egg inside of it.

Ash was astonished. "Is that what I think it is?!"

"That depends, Ash this is a pokemon egg. Now this is a privilege very few beginner trainer's get. I have no idea what is inside it so do not ask. I found it out in fields about a month ago. I planned on raising it here at the lab until I saw your test scores when you applied for your license. I figured that any student that got a perfect score should be able to handle it so I decided that I would give it to you as a gift."

Ash was still quite stunned but managed to conjure up a sentence. "But, why wouldn't you give it to Gary he's your grandson?"

Professor Oak smirked. "I honestly don't think Gary could handle an egg this is a big responsibility Ash and you are more suited for the task of raising it. You should not have to worry about it for too long since it should be hatching pretty soon. But, for now just make sure it stays in this incubator, it will keep it safe for the time being and when it is about to hatch the incubator will beep. "

Ash was overwhelmed with joy he had gotten his first pokemon Charmander and now a mysterious egg this day couldn't get any better for him. Ash took the incubator from the professor and carefully unzipped his back pack and placed it inside.

"Ok professor thank you for everything, I should probably get going now." Ash exclaimed.

"Of course Ash, give me a call whenever you want I would like to get updated on your progress every once in a while."

Ash gave the professor a thankful nod as he made his way outside the lab.

Ash started to walk down the long staircase that led back to the trail. He noticed that there was a large crowd of people approaching the lab as well as a red sports car. Hmmm….I wonder what all these people are doing here, if I remember correctly there should only be three other kids getting pokemon today, one of them being Gary.

"Ash!" yelled Delia from somewhere amongst the obnoxious crowd of people. The raven haired trainer made his way over to the crowd trying to pinpoint where his mother's voice had come from.

Once he found her, he couldn't help but smile. "Mom, I got my first pokemon!"

Mrs. Ketchum reached out and gave her son a bone crushing hug. "Oh Ash, I'm so proud of you. You're finally going to fulfill your dream and become a pokemon trainer. " Delia than started to choke up a little bit and tears started to fall from her eyes. "B-b-but, I'm going to miss you so much, oh my little boy."

"M-om…can't…breath." Ash tried to force out as his mother kept squeezing harder and harder.

"Oh, I'm sorry honey it's just I can't believe you're going to be leaving."

Ash sighed. "Don't cry mom, I'll call you as soon as I get to viridian city it shouldn't be more than 3 or 4 days."

Delia brightened up a bit. "You promise?"

The beginner trainer gave his mother a concerned look. "I promise, and don't worry too much I'll be with Charmander so it's not like I'll be on my own."

Delia suddenly put on a look of curiosity. "So, you chose a Charmander do you mind if I see it before you get going?"

Ash reached for Charmander's pokeball and once in hand pressed its button. Charmander was soon released and immediately scurried on over to Ash and nudged his head against Ash's leg showing its affection.

"Hey buddy theirs someone I would like you to meet." Charmander turned around in curiosity and was somewhat intimidated by all of the people within the crowd.

Delia bent over much like Ash did when he first introduced himself to the fire lizard. "Well aren't you just adorable. My name is Delia I'm Ash's mother."

"Char..char" squealed charmander happy to introduce himself to the nice woman.

"Well Charmander, you couldn't have got a better person to be you're trainer. Take care of Ash for me."

Charmander nodded in agreement before making his way back to his trainer. "You ready to see the world charmander?" Ash asked his new friend.

"charmander…charr..char" Charmander growled in a confident tone much like his master's.

"That's what I like to hear. Now I'm going to put you back in your pokeball until we get outside of town." Charmander agreed as he was returned back into his red and white sphere.

Ash gave his mother a hug before saying farewell. Once the emotional moment was over he started to follow the trail that would take him to route 1. Ash took about 20 steps before he heard an annoying all too familiar voice. Gary Oak…..

"Where you going Ash-boy, decided you were too scared to get a pokemon?"

Ash turned around with a smirk. He was a little bit surprised to find Gary in the back of the red sports car he had seen earlier. He was even more shocked by all of the cheer leaders that were accompanying him but decided that he might as well take a shot at Gary while he could. "Oh, hey Gary you've got it all wrong. I already have my first pokemon. I guess you're already trailing me."

Gary scoffed. "Pshhhh… Whatever Ash you may have beaten me out of bed, but there is no way you'll ever beat me in a pokemon battle."

Ash simply walked away while waving. "We'll see Gary, I'll catch you later."

Ash stood at the edge of pallet town. Beyond where he stood was route 1, he was about to begin his journey. Well this is it one more step and I'll be out of pallet. This is a groundbreaking moment.

The raven haired trainer reached for Charmander's pokeball, wanting his new friend to experience this with him. Once in hand Ash released Charmander. "This is it charmander, route 1, one more step and we'll be on our way to becoming the best."

"Charrrrrr!" The little starter crossed his arms with confidence ready to take on any challenges that they would face.

"That's the attitude! But, before we get going I want to check what attacks you know." Ash retrieved his pokedex' from his back pocket before waving it over Charmander and pressing a button.

"Char?" Charmander grunted in curiosity wondering what his friend was up to.

"Hello, Ash Ketchum I am Dexter and I will serve as a guide on your journey. Charmander the lizard pokemon, The flame at the tip of its tail makes a sound as it burns. You can only hear it in quiet places. This Charmander knows growl, scratch, and bite it is currently at level 5."

Ash grinned "Not bad buddy, most charmander don't know bite at your level it must be something you inherited from your parents."

Charmander growled with satisfaction, happy that he had already pleased his trainer in a way.

"Well you ready to get going it's time to hit the road." Ash started to walk down route 1 with Charmander by his side.

"Pidgey the tiny bird pokemon. Very docile If attacked it will often kick up sand to protect itself rather than fight back."

"Well what do you say Charmander, how about a battle?" Ash asked his fire lizard.

Charmander looked up at his master with a look of determination in his eyes. "Charrr!"

"Alright than let's do it!" With Ash's command charmander walked toward the wild Pidgey in hopes of having its first battle.

"Charmander start things off with Growl!" Ash turned his hat backwards as he gave his first command as a pokemon trainer.

Charmander answered Ash with a loud noise that instantly caught the attention of the Pidgey.

Pidgey felt its body weaken as its attack power was instantly chopped down. It didn't even notice the two figures before it was being ambushed.

In an angry attempt at getting back at the Charmander that was attacking her, Pidgey used its talons to try and send a shot of sand in its direction.

"Dodge it! And use scratch." Charmander avoided the sand attack and was quick to strike the bird pokemon with its claws.

Pidgey was sent skidding across the ground as she wasn't prepared for her sand attack to miss.

"Now finish it off with bite!" Charmander rushed at the fallen Pidgey and used its momentum to deliver the finishing blow. The fire lizard met the Pidgey with its teeth instantly knocking it unconscious.

"Great job Charmander that was incredible!" Ash called out to his friend impressed by how well he did in his first battle. Charmander scampered back to Ash's side pleased with how he battled. Ash knew that it wasn't over for he still had to catch the tiny bird pokemon.

He reached for one of his empty pokeball's before tossing it at the unconscious Pidgey. The pokeball did not even shake once and immediately clicked since Pidgey was unconscious and unable to fight back.

Ash raised a fist in triumph as he celebrated with Charmander. "We did it Charmander we caught our first new friend!" "Charr! Char! Char!" The two danced around in circles before Ash finally realized that he should probably retrieve Pidgey's pokeball.

Once he had Pidgey's pokeball in hand he slung his back pack off of his shoulder and searched throughout it in attempt to find a revive. After about a minute of digging through his bag he found what he was looking for.

Ash than proceeded to release Pidgey from its pokeball and try and feed the unconscious bird the revive. It was barely responsive but managed to down the foreign medicine.

Pidgey immediately perked up as the revive spread throughout its system. The raven haired trainer was happy to see that the tiny bird pokemon would be ok.

Once Pidgey had caught a grip on the situation it immediately looked down at the dirt in sorrow knowing that it had been caught. "Keep your head up Pidgey, there's nothing to be upset about."

Pidgey looked up at the human with sad eyes wondering why it should believe him.

"You're in good hands. I promise to give you a good home and if you come along with me I will make sure that you get much stronger. So do you want to be friends?"

Pidgey's reaction was somewhat comical it seemed really touched by Ash's words and flew around in circles celebrating that it had made a new friend.

Ash called Pidgey over and properly introduced it to charmander. The two seemed to get along as they were discussing something. During their chatter Ash decided that now would probably be a good time to scan Pidgey to see what type of moves it knows and what gender it was.

"This Pidgey is a female, it is level five, and knows the attacks tackle, and sand attack."

Ash grinned before turning to Pidgey and Charmander. "Are you two ready to get going."

Both pokemon nodded before Ash decided to return Pidgey to its pokeball. He had gotten used to having Charmander outside of it and wanted nothing more than to let Pidgey fly around as well. But, understood that it would probably tire the recently caught Pidgey out since she had just been knocked unconscious by Charmander.

Ash and Charmander were now about a quarter of the way to Viridian city following route 1. It was starting to get dark so Ash decided that it would probably be smart to set up camp.

The two found a small clearing that seemed to be safe from any possible pokemon attacks. Ash set up his sleeping bag before heading out into the woods with Charmander to try and find some wood for a fire.

After about ten minutes of gathering fire wood Ash determined that he had enough to start a fire. The two moved some stones in the shape of a large circle so that they had something to contain the fire with. Once finished Ash turned to Charmander. "Charmander could you please use your tail to start the fire."

Charmander did as he was told and started the fire before returning to his trainer's side, curling up beside him.
Ash than while sitting on top of his sleeping bag reached for Pidgey's pokeball and released her. "Hey girl, how are you feeling?"

Pidgey, squealed in excitement as she was let out of her pokeball by her new friend, she than landed on his right shoulder using it as a perch.

"I'm happy you're feeling better." Ash replied actually quite relieved.

The new pokemon trainer and his two brand new pokemon spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other a bit more.

When Ash saw on his pokedex' that it was 9 o'clock he put out the fire and laid down in his sleeping bag. Both his newly acquired pokemon did the same as they snuggled up along-side him.

As they stared up at the stars Ash slowly started to succumb to his sleepiness, but fought back his heavy eye lids for a few seconds in order to muster out a few last words to his pokemon before he fell asleep. "Good night guys, tomorrow we train."

Both pokemon couldn't help but be excited, tomorrow would be their first step towards getting stronger. Tomorrow would be another day spent with their new master who they were quickly learning to love.

To Be Continued….

Ash's Pokemon:

Charmander: Level 5

Pidgey: Level 5

Mystery Egg

Author Notes: Please review, If you do I will reward by answering what I can in the next chapter. Also if you enjoy this story check out A Master Rises as well.