Chapter 3

"Huh..." I muttered dumbly, staring wide eyed at the scene before me.

How could I not?

Mere moments into my walk towards Viridian City, I came across a scene of utter devastation. A smouldering black and audibly sizzling crater just sitting there in the middle of the road. And to go along with it the downed forms of hundreds upon hundreds of small birds with red wing feathers and brown plumage.

At least I knew when I was in the time line. I must be a little bit behind Ash Ketchum himself. That was both exciting and worrying. For one, I had no plans of sleeping outside without any camping gear so I was definitely headed for the Pokemon Center, the problem with that being that tonight was obviously the night the three stooges of Team Rocket would make their first ever attempt at stealing Pokemon with Ash nearby.

On the other hand, my mind instantly zeroed in on the fact that there would be a free Charmander on the way to Vermillion City in around week or two or so.

It didn't take me long to come to a decision. Sorry Ash, you may be my favourite and I have a big soft spot for you, but sorry mate, I can't let the chance to get that badass Charizard for myself pass me by.

Inching carefully around the fallen Spearow littering the road I had to withhold a whistle. God damn if this was the game verse Pikachu would be like level forty already. There was hundreds of the downed little fuckers.

And by little, I mean huge. These Spearow were all like the size of hawks.

After some careful steps I got passed the fallen birds and the crater and was about to continue on my way. Except my eyes strayed to a single fallen form at the front of the crater, ahead of its flock.

A Spearow. A Spearow, smoking and charred a little bit, but with a very familiar swelling on its crown. I winced just looking at it, no wonder the thing held such a grudge against Ash. I'd want to kick his ass too if he beamed me on the head with a fist sized rock.

Not that I'd get far mind you. With his crazy ass strength he could wrestle me to the ground one handed without effort.

I should just mind my own buisness and move on. Except, this little bird was the cause of one of my biggest pet peeves in Pokemon. Pidgeot never coming back. If this guy was gone, there'd be no reason for Ash to leave Pidgeot.

And he'd need all the heavy hitters he could get considering I was planning on taking Charmander for myself.

Not to mention….

No matter what Red fanboys claimed, I knew for a fact Ash trained his Pokemon well. Many claimed that he did not earn most of his badges, but I can easily refute all of them except maybe Sabrina.

Brock for instance. So what if the sprinklers went off? Rain Dance would have done the same god damn thing. Plus the gym was made of damn rock, why would it have sprinklers in the first place?

Note to self, teach my pokemon Rain Dance. It'd make taking Brock out a cinch.

Misty? Ash was winning that battle in the first place, he had both Pidgeotto and Butterfree still ready where as Misty only had I think Staryu left. Ash recalling Butterfree because it got hit into the water was in no way a loss, and everyone knows Pikachu would have toasted both her pokemon - if he wasn't such a little cunt at the time anyway.

Erika? Charmander got recalled because of Gloom's nasty smell, it wasn't knocked out. Ash had three pokemon left and Erika had just her Gloom, it was a foregone conclusion no matter what anyone says.

Anyway, my point was that this little Spearow without anyone to train it got strong enough to absolutely curb stomp Ash's Pidgeotto. A Pidgeotto that months earlier at that point in time had one shot a freaking Rhydon with Double-Edge.

The Fearow it became was an absolute power house. Just how strong would it be with someone to actually train it?

I eyed the downed bird before sighing in defeat. One more strong pokemon would be a big help considering the plans I've got running around in my head. I know exactly where to find wild and powerful pokemon. The Squirtle Squad for instance, or that Dragonair living out in that lake outside Saffron City, I remember it from the Battle Frontier season. Then there's that shiny Metagross in Sinnoh and all those wild Treecko in the Petalburg woods and shit.

If I was stuck here and this wasn't just some crazy ass dream, I'm gonna do things right and aim for some big cash. And I atleast know the basics of teaching and training pokemon thanks to Ash.

Choice made, I picked up the damn bird and reached into the back pocket of my jeans. Fun fact, the pokeballs do in fact shrink. That was epic as hell man. Not so epic was that I have no idea how to clip the pokeballs to my belt. One more thing I had to learn it seems.

I grunted a bit as I shifted the Spearow to my right arm and couldn't find it in me to fight the giddiness that swelled up inside me as I poked the little white button on front of the shrunken ball and it enlarged to fit into the palm of my hand.

So awesome.

I gently touched the pokeball to Spearow and gasped as it burst open in my hand and the bird pokemon swiftly disappeared from my arm and got sucked inside. I could only stare mutely for a moment as it clicked shut and shook lightly in my palm for a few seconds, glowing a faint red.

It took a good three seconds or so before it stopped moving and let out a soft ping sound signifying a successful capture, just like in the anime.

"Fuckin' hell!" I laughed, shaking my head. This was so surreal.

Something else occurred to me just now. Ash actually tried to catch this thing after fighting it with Pidgeot, but it was still strong enough to escape even after getting the crap beaten out of it by both Pidgeot and that massive flock of Pidgey and Pidgeotto that numbered in the hundreds.

But not only that, he actually did catch this guy in the Electric Tales of Pikachu, the manga. Besides Pikachu it had been his go to Pokemon and second strongest until he got that vicious Charizard he had in the manga.

I wonder what moves this thing knows? I know it knew Mirror Move in the manga, but we never actually got to see any of its moves in the anime. It just beat the shit out of Ash's Pidgeotto with pure physical might.

If it follows my new Pidgey's lead and knows something like Drill Run, I might just piss myself in glee. Which reminds me, I better let that guy out so we can come to an understanding or something. I better apologize to since I did pull an Ash and hit it with a rock, albeit by mistake.

That and I better make up a cover story of some kind for when I turn up at the Viridian Pokemon Centre with naught but a backpack and some pokeballs.

Grabbing my phone with my now Spearow-less free hand, I quickly pulled up the Pokedex app again and aimed the camera at the pokeball before hitting scan.

"Spearow, the Tiny Bird Pokemon. Spearow is very protective of its territory, it flaps its short wings busily to dart around at high speed.Gender: Male, Height: 1'02 – Attacks Known: Peck, Razor Wind, Double Team, Astonish."

Huh. Well that's pretty cool. It has pretty much all the same moves Ash's Fletchling had when he caught it. Except Astonish. A close combat attack, a ranged attack and an evasive ability. How does Astonish work again? I know it's a weak ghost type attack, but I can't remember much usage of it.

I think it's like a sound wave attack...maybe? James' Chimecho used it in a contest once in the anime if I remember right.

Too bad though, no Drill Run. I wonder if I could teach it? I know how Dawn's Piplup used Drill Peck, so I could at least follow that example for that, but how to go about Drill Run? I only ever remember seeing an Excadrill use it in the anime, and it locked its claws into place above its head and shaped itself into a kind of literal drill.

Would I have Spearow do the same?

I shook my head, no way. Its wings would be way too fragile. Not unless I toughened them up. I'd already planned on following Pikachu's Iron Tail training regime to teach Pidgey Steel Wing, so maybe do the same with Spearow and in the process get its wings strong enough?

"Whatever," I said to myself shaking my circular thoughts from my head before I got too obsessed. Putting my new Pokemon's pokeball in my pocket alongside Pidgey's, I was about to stow away my phone as well when I noticed something else on the app.

Name: -

Age -

Town: -

₱ - 0

I stared at it for a moment, frowning. This was a bit to good to be true. Granted, it would make sense for a detailed app to have this kind of thing on it, strictly for people who liked to cosplay and for a tiny sense of realism.

It kind of hurt though seeing the big zero besides the Pokemon Dollar sign.

But this is way too convenient. Especially because I need to get passed a crazy ass Officer Jenny who accused a ten year old boy carrying his injured pokemon of being a thief and tied to arrest him. Would have if his pokedex didn't conveniently announce who he was.

Well whatever, it saves me the trouble at least. Now all I gotta do is fill it in. Hell it even has a little profile picture icon so I can just upload a photo of myself to make the I.D legit.

Even cooler was the fact that in a little column under a title saying Owned Pokemon - were two pictures displaying a Pidgey and a Spearow.

Aaaaaaaaaand I just realized where I was standing! Just a few feet from an entire downed flock of hundreds of angry Spearow. Stowing my phone in my pocket I began power walking quickly away just in case any of them woke up and decided I was to be there next meal.

Besides, I've hit my quota of birds today thank you very much. It hasn't even been a full ten minutes since I landed here on Route 1 and I've already got two flying types.