Today, he reflected, was the most important day of his life. He had been eagerly waiting for this ever since he had been old enough to understand when he would get a pokemon of his very own. Ash had been weighing the pros and cons of the Kanto starters for months now, and he had decided that he wanted a charmander. Ever since he had seen a trainer win a tournament with a charizard on the television he had wanted one. The fire pokemon was strong even when it was young, and only got stronger as it aged and evolved.
He had made sure to bed early last night so he wouldn't be late to Professor Oak's lab. His alarm clock had been set an hour earlier than it needed to and he had made sure his mom knew to wake him up at the time his alarm was supposed to go off. There was no way that he would be late.
It turned out that his plan worked great. Ash was ready to go to the lab whenever his mom was done worrying over him. She was fussing over him and making him promise to stay safe, although she wished him luck just as much. He just let her worry since she might not see him for a long time. Instead of listening, he just envisioned himself becoming Champion with his future charizard at his side.
"Oh!" His mother suddenly exclaimed, looking past his shoulder at the clock. "You need to get going if you want to get to the lab in time! Make sure you come back here and say goodbye before you leave! I'll have your backpack ready."
Ash smiled at her and nodded, the excitement killing any words he might have said. He walked off in the direction of Oak's lab, and he smiled and waved to some of the people that wished him good luck on his journey. Pallet was such a small town that everybody knew that he and a few other kids would be starting today.
In no time at all he was at the large white building. Its windows looked shiny in the sunlight, and he saw that three other kids were standing in front of the doors. Ash walked up nervously, but before he could greet them a familiar, irritating voice broke out from them.
"Oh look!" Gary said arrogantly. "It's the loser. I'm surprised you even showed up – we all know that I'm going to beat you."
Ash gritted his teeth but said nothing. The other two kids – a rather short boy named Jonathan and a pretty girl named Amelia – looked uncomfortable with Gary's teasing but were too meek to protest against him.. They just looked down and kept their eyes away from Gary.
Finally, Ash snapped. "Shut up Gary! I'll beat you when we get our pokemon!"
"Yeah right." Gary smirked. "A loser like you doesn't have any chance against me! But let's do it. I'll show you what it means to be a real trainer."
Ash tightly nodded, glaring at Gary. He reigned in his temper, not wanting to start a fight the day he got his first pokemon. He would just have to beat him in their battle.
The next few minutes passed in silence. Gary dismissed them all, smiling cockily while he leaned against the lab's wall. Ash stood quietly for a moment before walking over to Jonathan and Amelia. They quietly began to chatter about what pokemon they wanted and how they would start off.
Jonathan and Amelia would be travelling together, and they invited Ash to go with them. Ash quickly accepted. He didn't want to be on his own yet and going with Gary wasn't likely to happen – not that either of them would want to travel together to begin with.
Finally, the glass doors neatly slid open. The soon-to-be trainers rushed in eagerly, wanting to be the first to get their pokemon. Gary pushed past the rest of them and Ash was forced to the back. As they entered the cold lab, a short woman in a pristine white lab coat greeted them.
"Hello!" She said warmly. "You must be the new trainers I was told about. Follow me and I'll take you to Professor Oak."
Gary chatted with her as she led them to the professor, but Ash was too nervous to listen. He and the other two kids shared anxious glances as they moved into a small room to the right of the main lab.
Inside was a small table that had three pokeballs on it. Professor Oak stood next to it and smiled reassuringly at them, and greeted them all by name. The familiarity loosened the tension they were feeling, although Gary didn't need it. He had an overabundance of confidence as it was.
Now that he didn't feel like he had a lump in his throat, Ash noticed a small problem.
"Professor Oak?" He asked quietly. Oak looked at him curiously, and despite knowing the man for years Ash found himself regretting speaking up. "There are only three pokeballs."
Oak looked confused for a moment before he realized the problem.
"Oh! I must have made a mistake." Oak said, cheeks turning red from embarrassment. Ash and the other two trainers looked at each other anxiously, not sure if they would get their starters today.
"Don't worry." Oak said as he saw the look they shared. "You'll all get a pokemon. One of you will just have to wait a few minutes for me to procure one."
They shared a sigh of relief. Oak smiled and continued.
"Now, who is willing to wait on their pokemon? I don't want the others to have to wait."
Everyone shared a moment of silence. Gary wasn't paying attention since he was sure to get one of the three pokemon no matter what. The other three trainers just looked at each other, silently hoping that one of the others would volunteer.
After a few moments passed and it became evident that no one was going to say anything, Ash spoke up. He felt a lump of disappointment in his throat as he realized he would have to wait but decided it didn't matter. As long as he got a starter it was fine.
"I'll wait." He said sadly. Oak looked impressed with him and smiled.
"Good. Just let the others get their pokemon and I'll see if I have any others ready." Oak turned away from him and addressed the others. "The pokeball to the left is bulbasaur, a grass type. The pokeball in the middle is charmander, a fire type. The pokeball to the right is squirtle, a water type. Each of them have their strengths and weaknesses, but a skilled trainer can use any of them very well."
Ash watched enviously as Gary pushed in front of the others and grabbed the squirtle's pokeball. Gary released the small blue turtle and sized it up. Apparently he found it to his liking because he smiled at it.
Jonathan chose the charmander and let it out of its ball as well. He looked at the orange lizard in awe, and laughed when the charmander curled up in a ball and tried to sleep. The other boy tried to pet it and the charmander lazily looked up at him.
Amelia picked the bulbasaur. The grass type looked pretty calm and began to investigate its surroundings. After Amelia started talking and petting it the Professor cleared his throat.
"Now that you have your pokemon, could you please return them? I have an important announcement."
Gary grumbled as he returned his squirtle and cockily stared at his grandfather. Amelia and Jonathan didn't say anything and just looked at the old professor. Ash followed their example.
"Now that I have your attention, I'm going to give you each a project to work on during your travels. You see, recently I invented a machine called the pokedex. It collects a detailed amount of information on pokemon, but I need someone else to search the world for me. I'm too old to gather them myself, so I'm entrusting each of you a pokedex to collect the information for me."
With that said he opened up a small bag on a table in the corner and withdrew four small red computers. He handed one to each of them, and Ash looked at curiously before wondering why he had four pokedexes ready but only three pokemon.
"Err, Professor Oak?" He asked. The old man looked at him after he had given Gary a pokedex. "Why did you have four pokedexes but only three pokemon?"
"I have lots of Pokedexes in that bag." Oak explained. He turned back to the new trainers. "Once you activate the pokedex and put your information in it will serve as your identity. Now, the pokedex gives you information on any pokemon you come across. For example, it will give you what type it is, what it likes to eat, what species it is, and will tell you what moves it knows."
Ash's eyes widened as he heard just how much the pokedex could do. Professor Oak continued to list its features, which revealed that it had information like the pokemon's habitat, gender, and a detailed description on the species. When he scanned something with it the pokedex it would give a basic summary of the pokemon, but to learn more about it he had to actually open it up and read.
"Now that you know what it can do, I suggest you all go outside and get ready for your journey. Make sure to activate the pokedex at your earliest opportunity. Ash, please stay in here."