The wilderness

"Ha!" Gary said, clearly not as impressed as squirtle. "That's the pokemon Gramps gave you? It's not even a real starter. Go get him, squirtle. Use tackle!"

His face colored in anger, but he wouldn't let Gary talk like that to Nidoran. Nidoran growled loudly and his barbs began to drip more poison. The small creature squared itself as squirtle charged at him.

Ash thought fast, going over Nidoran's capabilities. He knew that Nidoran wouldn't be very durable, so he couldn't just let squirtle tackle Nidoran. The squirtle nearly tripped several times as it ran towards Nidoran, but Ash didn't laugh at it. He needed to focus.

"Dodge and peck!" He cried. Nidoran jumped out of the way at the last second and let the turtle run into the lab's wall. His search pokemon lunged at the dazed turtle and rammed its vulnerable underbelly with his horn.

Squirtle cried out in pain, but at the insistence of its trainer it pulled itself up and continued fighting. The turtle tried another tackle, this time hitting Nidoran in the back before he or Ash could react. Even as Nidoran was knocked back a foot, squirtle began to fall over. Nidoran's barbs had injected the tired squirtle full of venom when it tackled Nidoran, and the turtle was unable to fight.

Ash cheered Nidoran on for a moment before taking a risk. He didn't pull his search pokemon back into his ball, instead motioning for Nidoran to follow him. The pink creature cheerfully followed Ash as the new trainer went home.

Gary didn't give them any trouble. He was too shocked that he had lost to bother them. They left Gary with his unconscious squirtle and walked back to Ash's home in euphoria over their win. Ash grinned and jumped almost the entire way home.

His mom was watching TV when they entered the small house. When Ash and Nidoran walked in, she jumped up and squealed in excitement when she saw the small pokemon.

"Oh, Ash! It's so cute!" She cried before scooping Nidoran up. Ash tried to call out a warning before she pricked herself on one of the poisonous barbs. His mom just looked at him admonishingly. She was carrying Nidoran strangely, but Ash realized that it was a position that would keep Nidoran from accidently pricking her.

"Don't you remember?" She asked as she carried the happy Nidoran around with her to get Ash's backpack. "I studied under Professor Oak for a few years. He taught me a lot about pokemon."

Ash blushed in embarrassment as he remembered that. His mom set Nidoran down before going to get his backpack. Nidoran walked next to his feet and sat down. He seemed to be listening for something, although Ash thought the little creature was just paranoid.

After a few minutes his mom brought out his blue backpack and handed it to him. Ash unzipped and looked inside to make sure it had everything he would need.

Food for him and his pokemon? Check.

A map? Check.

Rope and potions? Check.

A few more things were in the bottom and side pockets, but he didn't look at those yet. He had all the necessities and anything else he could buy at Viridian City. Now all that was left was to say goodbye to his mom.

Ash turned to her, but before he could say anything she had wrapped him in a crushing hug. He sputtered and thought his ribs were going to crack, and when his mom finally let go he gasped for air.

"Stay safe." She said. Ash thought that he could see tears in her eyes, but she pushed him out of the door before he could check.

The new trainer waved her goodbye and when he was finally out of sight of the house he ran to the gate that separated Pallet Town from Route 1. Ash saw the others waiting on him and both of them looked at Nidoran in curiosity.

"Is that a Nidoran!" Amelia asked excitedly. "That's so cool. I didn't even know the Professor had one."

Nidoran looked uncomfortable under the attention and sat down on the soft dirt. He scratched his ear as an attempt to ignore the attention Amelia was giving him.

"So what moves does he know?" Jonathan asked. "Charmander knows growl, scratch, and ember. I'm going to try and teach him smokescreen later."

Ash told his new traveling partners Nidoran's move set, and both were surprised when they heard that the poison type knew confusion.

"Wow, you're really lucky." Jonathan said. "But I think we need to get going. My mom got to Viridian City in three days and I want to beat her record."

Ash and Amelia grinned and nodded their assent. They wanted to get their journey underway just as much as Jonathan did. With that they set off down the worn dirt road of Route 1, eager to venture out into the world.

Xx

(This is time skip btw)

Ash had to return Nidoran after a while. Although his starter was valiantly attempting to keep up with them, its stubby legs and slow speed caused it to be pretty tired after half an hour. He didn't want Nidoran to tire himself out before they could find something to battle.

"So," he began in attempt to revive the conversation, "did you guys see the battle between Bruno and that Marcus guy last night?"

"That was awesome!" Jonathan said loudly. Ash noticed that a few pidgey roosting in the tree above them fled due to Jonathan's loud voice. "Bruno actually lost! I think Marcus or whatever his name is lost to Agatha though."

"What happened?" Amelia asked curiously as they walked down the trail. "My parents made me go to bed before the battle came on. I only got to see the end of Lorelei's match."

"Oh it was great!" Jonathan said boisterously. "Marcus' Gengar beat all of Bruno's pokemon except for onix. I think Bruno got pretty mad over his loss."

Ash and Amelia listened intently, but eventually they got bored of Jonathan practically swooning over the Elite Four. Amelia diverted the conversation to something that neither Ash nor Jonathan had known about.

"So have either of you heard about the spearow flock that's been causing trouble around here?" She asked. Jonathan looked pretty nervous – everyone in their class at Pallet Town had known that he was terrified of bird pokemon – but Ash wanted to know more.

"I thought that Professor Oak had them driven off a few weeks ago?" Ash said, reflecting back to the day that Oak had left with his gigantic dragonite. Gary had been bragging about being taught by his grandfather all day after that.

"He did." Amelia confirmed. "But they came back. I heard they've been attacking trainers, so we should probably be on guard. My older sister in Viridian City told me that the Pokemon Center there has been getting a lot of hurt people in from them."

Jonathan groaned and kept a hand on his pokeball. Ash noticed that he was quickly glancing around at the trees as if he was trying to spot the flock.

"Too bad none of us have an electric type." Ash said. "Nidoran doesn't have any moves for a lot of search pokemon at once. How about you guys?"

"Bulbasaur knows vine whip and sleep powder." Amelia said off the top of her head. "I'm going to teach him poison powder and razor leaf soon. But right now I don't think he could do very much against a flock of spearow. They would have way too good of a type advantage."

"Ember would be able to fight off a few of them." Jonathan whispered as he continued searching the area for birds. Both Ash and Amelia looked at him oddly. "But he would have to get closer before he could really do anything."

Ash shrugged. They would just have to run if they came across the flock. For now it seemed like the sun was about to set.

"Hey, guys, it's getting dark. Do either of you know how to set up a camp?"

Jonathan and Amelia shook their heads. Ash sighed, realizing that he probably should have asked someone to teach him before setting out on their journey. It looked like the first night would be pretty uncomfortable.

They continued on for a bit longer before reaching a place that would be comfortable to sleep in. It was a small clearing surrounded by trees. The clearing had decent cover from any surprise rainfall they might get and was out of the way enough to keep them out of trouble.

At least they had all remembered to bring their sleeping bags, Ash thought as he laid his out on the ground.

Jonathan was out searching for logs or something to burn while Amelia had begun to divide up small portions of food for them. Ash had to find a place to get more water in case they ran out in the morning.

Their large, thick plastic water bottles still had plenty in them, but none of them were willing to just play around in the wilderness.

They'd all heard too many horror stories of kids getting lost and being found after they'd died from the wild. None of them wanted to be like that.

Ash yawned and wondered where Jonathan was. He definitely wouldn't be in any trouble – the pokemon around Pallet Town tended to be young and weak and wouldn't want to mess with a charmander – but he wasn't the smartest guy in class and could get lost. Anyone could get lost when it was this dark, although charmander and its tail flame would come in handy.

Just as he and Amelia were beginning to get worried, they heard a rustling at the edge of the trees. Amelia released her bulbasaur and Ash was just about to release Nidoran when they realized it was Jonathan. Their friend stumbled into the dark campsite with his arms full of small branches and other foliage.

Both of them were in awe of how much Jonathan had managed to carry and didn't say anything as he threw the massive pile into the small circle of stones they had created and collapsed near his sleeping bag.

He was barely visible in the dim light from charmander's tail, but Ash could see him tiredly point at the pile of fuel

"Catch that on fire." He said with a yawn. Charmander shot a small stream of flame onto the brush before walking over next to his trainer and curling into a ball, although the lizard was careful to keep its tail flame away from Jonathan.

"Put that out before you guys fall asleep." Jonathan said tiredly. Ash nodded and got off of his sleeping bag so that he could scoot closer to the fire's warmth. He released Nidoran, who seemed rather happy with the small camp. The small creature sniffed around for a few moments before sitting next to Ash and staring at the fire.

Ash heard snores coming from his left, which meant that Amelia had fallen asleep. He smiled as he thought of his two new traveling partners.

Jonathan and Amelia had been good friends at school, but they hadn't really associated with him very much.

In fact, the only thing he had really known about them was that they would be leaving on their pokemon journies, just like him. The rest of the class had been either too young or deemed too irresponsible to leave Pallet Town.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Nidoran, who seemed to be growling at something. Ash frowned in concern and stayed silent as Nidoran's ears twitched. If there was something out in the woods, it would definitely be Nidoran to realize it.

After a while Nidoran relaxed, but Ash was still on edge. He hadn't realized just how nervous sleeping in the wilderness could make him. Ash grew less tense, but he still tried to listen to the forest. The trainer grew tired after about half an hour of sitting next to the fire and decided to go to sleep.