Pokemon: The Journey

"I choose you, Pokémon."

The Poké ball opened and let out a white light that formed a short, chubby rodent Pokémon.

It was covered in yellow fur with two horizontal brown stripes on its back. It had a small mouth, long, pointed ears with black tips, and brown eyes. Each cheek was a red circle that sometimes let out electricity. It had short forearms with five fingers on each paw, and its feet each had three toes. At the base of its lightning bolt-shaped tail was a patch of brown fur.

It was looking blankly as if judging their worth, and known only to it, plotting something.

Shaking out of their stupor at such a sight, both of them remembered what they were doing.

"This one is called a Pikachu. I found the guy eating the wires of my equipment yesterday night. He has a bit of an attitude. What do you think?"

Roshi and Ash thought and said at the same time, "Aww, it's cute."

Ash took Pikachu in his hands and hugged it.

"Ash, wait..."

Grinning after looking irritated, Pikachu shocked him.

'That's what you get, human.'

Twitching violently for some time, Ash got back up only to hear from him, "It's quite shocking, isn't?"

With a dry, humorless voice, he said, "It's shocking, indeed."

Giving a dry cough and making himself seem important, Professor Oak took some balls and a handheld device before handing them to Ash.

"These are the Poké balls you are going to need. You should use them wisely. Also, take this, a state-of-the-art encyclopedia made by yours truly, to research and know more about Pokémon. I expect you to record everything there is to know about Pokémon by letting it scan them. It also acts as your ID. You will also receive a stipend of 10,000 Pokémon dollars each month. Is that understood?"

Receiving the Pokédex, Ash said with a voice filled with gratitude, "Thanks, Professor."

Seeing both of the humans distracted, Pikachu used Thundershock again and started looking for a way out.

Now, if it were any humans except these two, they would have suffered worse, but not them. Professor Oak sometimes got hit by a trained Pokémon every time, thus building a form of resistance to them. 

Ash did feel pain, but was only temporarily paralyzed.

"Y-you should return your Pikachu to his Poké ball, Ash."

"R-R-Right."

Hearing their words, Pikachu stopped cold and looked at the ball with pure hatred and disdain.

Taking Pikachu's Poké ball, Ash was ready to return him, when...

"Ash! Stop what you are doing now!"

Professor Oak and Pikachu looked at Ash, who had suddenly perked up.

'What is it?'

"Point the Poké ball at Pikachu and look at him, but do not call him back."

'Why...'

Ash looked at Pikachu and saw his expression for the first time properly.

Pikachu was looking with hatred and hostility at his Poké ball with sparks coming out of his cheek pouches, and was growling.

Ash felt stupid.

Guilt.

Shame.

The feelings hit him with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

'How could I be so blind?'

'Is this what I have been training for?'

'Can I even train Pokémon if I do not notice what they want?'

'I am horrible.'

"No, you are not. You had just gone complacent with knowing that you were going to do great, and you lost sight of what was in front of you. When you think that you cannot do anything wrong, you will always lose. You are just beginning your career as a trainer, so it stands that you will not notice it. It is better to learn it now than when you might lose something important and start losing matches, thinking that you are invincible."

'Okay. Thanks for looking out for me.'

"No worries, kid."

Taking a deep breath, Ash looked at Pikachu in his eyes and readied himself.

"Do you want to go into your Poké ball?"

Even if he knew, it did not hurt to ask after all.

Narrowing his eyes, Pikachu shook his head negatively.

"Okay."

Ash shrunk the Poké ball and put it on his belt along with the rest.

That act alone surprised both the Professor and Pikachu, which resulted in the latter lowering his guard, no matter how small.

"Professor, is there a reason why Pikachu will not go inside his Poké ball?"

"Hmmm, there are sometimes cases where the Pokémon will not want to go inside their Poké balls."

"If I face such an issue again, and am not able to contact you, how am I supposed to know about them?"

"You can just ask your Pokédex for that."

"How am I supposed to know about the different Pokémon I meet?"

"Just point the Pokédex at the Pokémon. Why don't you use it on your Pikachu?"

Pointing at Pikachu, the Pokédex said the following, "Pikachu, the electric rodent Pokémon. When several of these Pokémon gather, their electricity could build and cause lightning storms. It keeps its tail raised to monitor its surroundings. If you yank its tail, it will try to bite you."

Pikachu looked interested in hearing the machine say that about him.

"That's it?"

"What do you mean?"

Frustrated, Ash said, "How am I supposed to know about its move pool, gender, how to raise him, what he eats, and other such stuff?!"

Pikachu looked at the Professor, who had a bewildered face, and adopted a look of realization before paling.

"Shi-. Ahem, I mean I forgot to upgrade and put some necessary changes in it. I will take that for some time."

Takin-Snatching the Pokédex from Ash's hands, Professor Oak took it to a machine where he started to type something.

All the while, Ash and Pikachu were looking at him with a deadpan.

Trying to break the silence, Ash looked at Pikachu.

"Hey, Pikachu?"

Hearing his species name, he turned towards Ash with less distrust.

"I am going to my house after this to eat something before we go on a journey. Want to grab a bite too?"

Upon hearing the term food, his stomach growled.

It was at this time that the Professor came back with the Pokédex in his hands.

"Here, it has been updated for the task."

"Ah. Thanks Professor. I should now be going with Pikachu, whom you caught..."

Stopping mid-speak, Ash's smile froze before turning menacing.

"Professor."

Hearing his mirthless voice, the Professor and Pikachu got scared.

'I knew the humans were scary and untrustworthy.'

"Did you just forget to get me a proper starter Pokémon, and give me a Pikachu whom you caught last night while he was having a meal, forget to feed him, give him to a complete rookie, and tried to give me a barely fully functional Pokédex?"

When he said the events in that way, things were not looking good for the Professor at all.

Pikachu was grinning despite himself and cackling in the background.

For all those in the room, it became clear that one thing, if Ash said the words in such a fashion, which were true, was to be heard by somebody else, it would look like the Professor was trying to sabotage Ash.

Sweating profusely, the Professor said, "Now, now, Ash. There must be some kind of a misunderstanding...We can come to a compromise if you do not tell anybody about that."

Unknown to the rest of the people, both Ash and Roshi were grinning mentally like loons.

"Well, you can give me..."

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Whistling a tune, while carrying a bag filled with stuff, Ash was walking towards his house with Pikachu in tow.

Hey, he did not trust the human. He was going to need the strength to run after he ditched him.

After some time, they reached a plain white house, where Ash rang the doorbell.

"Coming."

He saw his mother open the door.

Looking at her son, her mood brightened.

"Hey, mom. Can I come in? I would also like to introduce my starter to you as well. We both are pretty hungry, so can we talk over the breakfast?"

"Your food is getting cold. Come in fast."

Both human and Pokémon entered the house and were entranced by the aroma of the food.

Salivating, both of them sat at the table and started eating the breakfast.

Letting them eat for some time, she decided to ask, "So, who's your starter?"

"Oh! Let me introduce you to Pikachu. Mom, this is Pikachu. Pikachu, this is my mom. She is the best cook in the world, right?"

Not hearing anything, both of them turned to where Pikachu should have been eating and stared.

Eating as if it had not in days and having cheeks filled with food, and looking like a chipmunk, the Pikachu was proving to be looking more compatible with Ash as more time passed according to Delia.

Both of them ate as if they were Snorlax.

Giggling, Delia looked at Ash who looked embarrassed.

"I am sorry?..."

"No need to worry about it."

After eating their breakfast and being filled with food, Ash collected his backpack, put the stuff he got from Professor Oak into it, and started to go towards the exit of Pallet Town along with Pikachu and Delia.

"Are you not going to put back inside?"

Pikachu growled.

Looking at him, and then at his mom, Ash said, "He does not like his Poké ball. I am going to respect that."

Pikachu looked at Ash with less hostility, but it was still present.

Tearing up, Ash looked at his mom, and said, "Well this is it."

"Yeah."

Delia looked sad as well.

Pikachu looked at both of them and understood they were mother and son.

Just like the mother Kangaskhan was to him.

He respectfully kept his silence and decided to act later.

"I-I will miss you, mom."

"M-me too."

"T-take care of your health."

"I will. So, will you right? Don't forget to call from the Pokémon Centre when you get there. Also do not forget to change your underwear every day."

"M-Mom!"

Snickering, as if trying to lighten the mood, she said, "Good luck."

"Yeah. Thanks mom. I will do my very best and become a Pokémon Master, too. Can I ask you something?"

Sniffing, she said, "Go ahead."

"Do-do you think dad would have been happy to see me go on my journey?"

Heartbroken, as if remembering something tragic, but refusing to let her son see that side of her, she cheered up on the outside, and said with a soft voice, "Yeah he will be."

After standing in comfortable silence for some more time, Ash turned around.

"Bye, mom."

"Bye, and good luck son!"

Ash and Pikachu started walking forwards.

They never saw Delia's crying face.