The Chosen One's Path

Summary: Challenge set by MathiasNightLord101. What if Ash befriended a very rare, very powerful Pokémon four years before he started his journey? What if he was a lot smarter and caught a lot more Pokémon? Watch how a single encounter will forever change his life.

Chapter 1: A Meeting

Ash Ketchum was only six years old when he came across his first wild Pokémon. Sure he had seen Pokémon at Professor Oak's Lab and around town, but they belonged to other Trainers and the Pokémon around town were just pets.

So when he discovered a completely foreign Pokémon that was tangled in some vines, Ash couldn't help but be excited.

The Pokémon strongly resembled a cat and white fur covering it's gray body. It had a sickle like object growing on top of his head. Ash recognized this Pokémon to be Absol, native only to Hoenn and Sinnoh.

But how did it get to Kanto, and why can't it free itself? Despite the numerous questions in his mind, Ash knew that he had to help the Pokémon and looked for anything he could cut the vines with.

After looking around for a good ten minutes, Ash finally found a rock that looked sharp enough and carefully approached the dark-type Pokémon.

When Absol noticed that a human was coming close to him, he started struggling harder and no matter what Ash said, he couldn't get Absol to calm down.

Ash was about to give up when he felt a sudden rush of strong emotion course through him. He felt like his body was on autopilot when he closed his eyes and clasped his hands together, mumbling the word "transcend" Ash felt his mind entering Absol's subconscious.

"What's going on? I don't understand!" Ash exclaimed when he opened his eyes. The surrounding world had faded away to be replaced with a rippling red energy. When Ash saw Absol in the center of it, He was shocked. Was he in Absol's heart?

He thought that maybe this was the way that he could calm Absol down so he could help him in the outside world. So he gave it a shot. "Absol, I don't know what made you so scared, but you've got to calm down! You'll only hurt yourself worse if you don't so please listen to me!"

Ash was afraid that this would end like his other attempts but was surprised when the red energy around him turned to a blue. Ash felt himself being pulled out of Absol and was brought back to the outside world.

He looked at Absol and was shocked to not see him struggling anymore. Instead, Absol's once frightened gaze was now understanding. Ash picked up the rock again and moved closer to the Disaster Pokémon and started cutting away at the vines.

A little more than an hour later and Ash had freed Absol from the vines and sat down in exhaustion. The day had worn him out in more ways than one. After resting to catch his breath, Ash looked up in surprise to see that Absol was still there. He would have expected the Pokémon to run of back into the wild, but not this.

He was even more surprised when Absol leaned down to let Ash wrap his arm around him for support. When Ash could stand on both legs, he let go of Absol's fur and started walking back home.

The sun was starting to set and his mom would kill him if he wasn't back in time for dinner. He felt a nudge in his back and realized that Absol was still behind him. "Do you want to come home with me?"

Ash's eyes widen when Absol responded by nudging him again. I suppose that after helping him calm down and escaping from the vines he's grown attached to me. How will I explain this one to mom?

Ash figured he would worry about it later and continued his walk home with Absol following behind him.

Ash had made it home just in time for dinner and when his mom saw Absol behind him, she just about freaked out until Ash told her what happened. He didn't tell her about how he clamed Absol down, but he didn't need to anyway. Delia ended up welcoming Absol into their home and the three settled down to a nice dinner.

The following four years proved to be much of the same and both Ketchums saw just how loyal Absol was to Ash. The Disaster Pokémon wouldn't leave his side and made sure that nothing would harm him. Ash thought it was cool that he had a loyal Pokémon already and Delia was glad she wouldn't have to worry about her son getting into trouble as much anymore.

On year before Ash turned ten, the days flew by and Ash was anticipating getting his first Pokémon from Professor Oak. He planned on taking Absol with him on his journey and talked it over with his mom, promising only to use him in the Pokémon League should he get all eight badges.

When Ash asked why, Delia explained to him that it wasn't common for people to use foreign Pokémon outside of League battles and the same applied to other regions. She told Ash that he would be attracting a lot of attention if he used Absol in anything other than training and battling wild Pokémon.

Finally the time came for Ash to leave for his journey. He was so excited that he stayed up past his bedtime watching one of the current Pokémon League battles where a Trainer was using a Nidorino against his opponent.

Ash clearly saw that the Nidorino could easily when if he used Double Kick to knock out the opponent's Onix. He was happy when Nidorino did succeed but was sad when he had to be recalled after being struck by Gengar's Hypnosis attack.

"Ash you should be in bed! You start your Pokémon journey tomorrow and you should start being more responsible." Delia said. She noticed that when she came in, Absol was already asleep by the foot of Ash's bed. "At least Absol has more common sense than you do!"

"Aw mom, I can't sleep! I'm to excited!" Ash said. This was one of the times that he cursed being hyperactive. He knew that if he overslept he wouldn't get a starter Pokémon tomorrow.

"Fine then, if you can't sleep than watch this at least. It's a program talking about the Pokémon you get to choose from tomorrow. When this goes off I expect you to be in bed." Delia said, switching the channels to show Professor Oak talking about Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.

Ash was soon drawn to the documentary and as his mother left the room, said "I'm going, I'm going."