You know what I realized when I was writing this? It has been a while since I've properly wrote for Pokemon fanfiction. Writing the battle in this chapter felt so awkward and odd. It told me I'm not used to writing battles anymore - meaning, I've stagnated..I've become worse than even when I wrote Sinnoh With Skill. Writing battles has always been where my skills lay in Pokemon fanficiton.

Bro, I am disappoint.

Anyway, jokes aside - I've noticed, for every story where Ash sets off, he always heads for Pewter first. Even I'm guilty of this, and I wondered why. Everyone knows I'm an advocate of the Gym Leader's never going easy on a challenger, so it really doesn't matter where a trainer starts off. Brock, or any Gym Leader is gonna stomp them flat. So, an ideas was toyed with, and from it this story was born.

Yeah yeah, I know - Jord, why the hell are you starting another new story, blah blah blah. Because I want to, as I've mentioned before, I don't get a lot of time to work on my stories, so I write what I can. And if that reason isn't good enough for you, well how about...I did it because I wanted to, and because I can? If it bothers you that I start new stories a lot, then you don't need to read. I'll do what I want regardless of anyone's opinion.

And honestly, who complains about new story content anyway? Seriously, I got some guy ranting at me about it the other day, so I went to his profile and you know what I found? Nothing, not even a bio or anything. Not one word written for stories. What kind of sad act does that?

Anyway regardless, this story is more or less a redo of my very first Pokemon story. Path of a Master. This first chapter is a little short, but tit covers all I needed it to. So there was no point dragging it out. It'll pick up more in Chapter 2 though, so look out for that. I've got big plans for this story.

Newly starting Pokemon trainers were so predictable these days.

Really, for the last five years now it had been the same old tried and true formula. First, they'd receive their starter Pokemon, then they'd make their way to the Viridian Forest, where they'd stay for anywhere between two to seven days, getting some training in but mainly focusing their efforts into catching grass and water types.

Bellsprout, Oddish, Goldeen, Barboach and such were quite abundant in the Viridian Forest. Some people even managed to get their hands on some rarer specimens like Poliwag, Horsea, Lotad, Seedot and such. There were even rumours of the odd starter like Bulbasaur or Squirtle being found in the forest.

Because of his status as the youngest Gym Leader, Brock got a massive amount of challengers, all for some odd reason believing that because of his young age, he was a push over compared to the rest of the Gym Leaders.

That was the reason so many starting out trainers failed. Brock was a Gym Leader regardless of his age, meaning he was strong enough as a trainer to pass the Gym Leader examination battle. And that was five years ago, when Brock was only eleven years old. He and his pokemon would have only grown in leaps and bounds since then.

Gary had the right idea. He was skipping right over the Pewter Gym, heading straight for Mt. Moon and then Cerulean City. Mt. Moon had an assortment of different Pokemon, from ground types, to fighting types, heck even the odd fairy or psychic type here or there. And the rough terrain made for a great spot to train.

As for himself? Well, Ash Ketchum was going to be the best. So, of course had to start off with a bang! And after picking out Charmander as his trusted partner, he was ready to start making waves.

"Thunderpunch!" Ash grunted, as he heaved with all his might. With a mighty pull, he reared back the rod in his hands and the water in front of him exploded outwards as the hooked pokemon was pulled up and out of the ocean.

"Char!" the small fire type at his side let out a battle cry - fist sparking with an electrical charge, it sprang forward and delivered a powerful punch with its small fist towards Ash's catch.

Charmander missed.

The hooked Pokemon, a Psyduck displayed a level of agility beyond what its species were usually capable of. Tugging its mouth free from the hook of the rod, Psyduck twirled gracefully around the sparking fist of Charmander, landing behind the small fire type in the traditional good guy pose.

The water type directed its up thumb towards Ash with a grandiose wink. "Duck!" it declared.

Seeing its attack miss, Charmander leaped back and landed at Ash's side, "Char?" it mumbled, directing a glance at Ash.

"Yeah, that's no normal Psyduck," Ash said, staring at the water type with a serious gaze. Then a smirk bloomed atop his face, "Perfect, just what we've been waiting for!" he continued.

He should know, he'd been at this for hours already. While Gary and that other kid who started out with him had already left towards Viridian City, Ash instead made his way to the ocean at the opposite end of Pallet Town.

His plan? Instead of heading for Pewter, he was heading for Cinnabar Island. The perfect place to train a Charmander – the only problem was? How to get there? No ferries went from Pallet to Cinnabar – atleast not for another few days, and that was a supply ship, not an actual ferry – the only other travel from Pallet town was by plane, and there was no way he was wasting the little money he had as a beginning trainer on a plane ticket.

That left riding a water type. And for hours he'd been trying to catch one that could ferry him across. It had bee mostly Magikarp, Horsea and Tentacool he'd hooked, and while he was tempted to get a Mgikarp, he'd yet to find one big enough to ride on.

The most common after those three, had been Psyduck – he'd seen a good fifteen or so of them in the last four hours, but they'd all been rather average, and went down very easily to Charmander's thunderpunch attack. Actually, everything so far had went down rather easily.

This was the first pokemon in amongst a good fifty or more of them that had dodged the opening attack.

Letting his rod drop to the ground, Ash lifted up his Pokedex and scanned the wild water type posing in front of him, "Psyduck, the Duck Pokémon. Psyduck suffers frequent headaches and can exhibit mysterious attacks when they become especially intense.Gender: Male, Height 3'03" - Attacks Known: Water Gun, Calm Mind, Hypnosis, Brick Break, Confusion."

Ash had to withhold a whistle. He eyed Charmander to his side, "This is the one we've been waiting for buddy!" he said, raising a clenched fist. Definitely, this was the one. The biggest Psyduck they'd found to this point had only been 2'11" in height, nearly a full, half a foot shorter than this one

Charmander mimicked him, raising his own little fist and clenching it, "Char!" the little fire type agreed with nod of his head.

He watched as the Psyduck twist around and pose, pointing both arms into the air diagonally before curling around its head to form a heart shape, "This things really coherent for a Psyduck," he said, usually, Psyduck were so ruled by their headache's they were pretty much a blank slate until they evolved, this one though, was fully aware of everything going around it and didn't look to be suffering from a headache – it had to be because it knew Calm Mind – Psyduck weren't psychic types, yet they had psychic power on par with even the Abra-line, usually they couldn't control it well which was what led to them having constant headaches..because they couldn't control their own psychic powers.

It was only when they became Golduck, that they gained the strength to tame those powers, unless specially trained for it.

This one though, must have constantly been using Calm Mind to focus its mental power and control its psychic powers, which was how it was able to stay so coherent. That meant one thing – this thing had full control, or as close as it could get without being a Golduck. "We're gonna have to be fast," Ash murmured, "If you slow down for even a second, it'll catch you with Confusion."

"Char!" Charmander nodded.

"Let's blind and blitz it then," Ash decided. "Smokescreen, then use Quick Attack to get behind it and Thunderpunch." the raven haired pallet native ordered succinctly.

Without hesitation, Charmander obeyed. Opening his little mouth wide, Charmander expelled a massive volume of black smoke, hiding the area from view.

Ash's eyes watered from the inky black smoke, "I should get some goggles or sunglasses, for this kind of thing," he said to himself. Thankfully, Smokescreen at the very least wasn't harmful to the lungs.

That was when he noticed a blue glow infused throughout the smoke, "What the?" he mumbled, was that Psyduck's doing?

He didn't need to wonder for long. Like a rocket, the smoke twisted up into the sky and dissipated, revealing the area again. Charmander was a blur, racing up widely around the side.

Fast, but not fast enough.

Lowering itself from its pose, Psyduck turned towards the blur that was Charmander. A jet of water shot forth from its bill, shooting towards Charmander like a lance. Charmander avoided it with ease, but Psyduck didn't let up, and one after another it shot lances of water at Charmander, each one missing as Charmander blurred past with Quick Attack.

"No good," Ash cursed, snapping his fingers. Charmander was too fast with Quick Attack for Psyduck to hit with Water Gun from so far away, but while it was blasting those Water Gun's Charmander couldn't get close.

No matter. A quick strategy switch up was all that was needed. "Go towards it! Use Ember while you go!" he shouted.

With a quick turn on his heels, Charmander changed directions and shot towards Psyduck. Blurring forward, a barrage of small bullet-like embers of flame shot across the distance towards Psyduck.

Crossing its arms in front of its face, Psyduck took the attack.

It was only the faint blow glow Ash could see from his position that warned him of what the Psyduck was aiming for, "Jump!" he ordered urgently.

With the momentum pushing Charmander forward from his Quick Attack, the little fire type launched himself shooting into the air, and none too soon. A split second later, a widespread beam of blue light hummed through Charmander's previous position.

"Thunderpunch, now!" Ash quickly shouted to his starter as he fell through the air towards Psyduck rapidly.

Psyduck jerked its head up, the blue beam of light shoot from its eyes swerving with its head. But it was too late – if it was a normal jump, Charmander would have been caught by the Confusion attack with ease. But it wasn't, this was a jump that's vector was increased by Charmander jumping into it from his Quick Attacker.

Momentum mattered.

Like a thunderclap, Charmander fell from the sky and delivered a devastating fist infused with the power of lightning right across Psyduck's face.

"Duck!" the Psyduck screamed as it was lit up like a christmas tree.

Ash wasn't about to let this opportunity pass him by, and already had a Pokeball in hand as Charmander ended the attack and leaped back. As Psyduck fell, Ash threw the pokeball.

One, two – three times the pokeball shook after sucking the water type inside before loosing a loud ping-like nose, signifying a complete capture.

"We did it!" Ash shouted with glee. Running over, he met Charmander half way and caught the little fire type as he leapt into his arms, "Our fist capture buddy! The first step on the road to becoming a master!" the raven haired trainer laughed, lifting Charmander into the air and spinning around in happiness.

"Wooooh yeah!"

"Char char – Charmander!"

Ash's Current Pokemon

Charmander: Male

Attacks: Ember (Fire), Quick Attack(Normal), Thunderpunch(Electric), Smokescreen(Normal).

Psyduck: Male

Attacks: Water Gun(Water), Brick Break(Fighting), Confusion(Psychic), Hypnosis(Psychic), Calm Mind(Psychic).

And we're done. A quick little opening prologue as I mentioned at the top.

Why does Charmander know Thunderpunch? Because...reasons. Well, I don't really see a problem with it, in the Manga, Blue's Charmander knows Flamethrower at the Viridian Forest, and Silver's Totodile knows Ice Punch after he steals it. So I don't really see the problem.

Charmander can't learn Quick Attack! True, kind of. But, there is an event Charmander that knows Quick Attack in the 4th generation. So, as far as I'm concerned, that's reason enough for Charmander to be able to learn it.

And Psyduck, I don't really need to explain this one do I? Any true Pokemon fan should know where this guy comes from - I'll give you a hint just in case, Ash and gang meet him in the Orange Islands. Although, he's a little different here.

That's all for now guys. Later.