Please find below, in the spoiler tag, a list of the individual pokemon appearing in this chapter and links to obtain pictures and information about them, should you not be familiar with any of them.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Tangela

Growlithe

Poliwhirl

 As soon as this chapter is published, I will edit it to include a poll to try and determine the level of familiarity this fictions audience has with pokemon in general, like generation one, two, etc. and make the necassary adjustments in future.

For the first chapter I am taking the safe approach and assuming the lowest level of knowledge possible and making use of only generation one pokemon.

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Ash draws in deeply on his cigarette, appreciating the warmth filling his body.  It is a rather cold night out, even through his padded jacket. Sitting on the wooden park bench, while enjoying his cigarette, he looks out over the cityscape.  

At night, Millenium city can be quite beautiful, especially when you have a good vantage point from which to view it.  Ash’s vantage point in question was from the Talos convention centre that is located on a bit of a hill, or to be specific the small park that is located adjacent to the main entrance area of the building.

Ash looks out over the countless skyscrapers in the distance, with their many interconnecting cables and passenger tubes.  He stares, lost in thought, at the vast array of neon lights of all colors and the many illuminated virtual advertising boards all competing for space and your attention, plastered all over the buildings in the distance.

The park is quite, as is the main entrance for the most part.  On a night like this, it is used exclusively for the arrival of ‘Elders’ and other VIP’s.  But for a small scale match like this, there are very few of those attending.

I better finish my cigarette.  The officials should be done scanning the pokemon I brought with for my match.  During official matches like this, the tournament officials normally keep your pokeballs right up until the match begins and scan the pokemon for things like chemical stimulants, gene manipulation or biomechanical implants.  

Ash gets up from the bench and snuffs out his cigarette in the grass below him.  Sure it’s a bad thing to do, but let’s be honest here, it’s not like the grass is real or anything.  Nothing in this city is real anymore.

Ash looks up, as he notices somebody approaching.  A man wearing a dark green padded jacket that comes all the way up and over his chin, a brown tracksuit pants and a baseball cap.  

The man’s face is shrouded in darkness.  The thick pollution that hangs over Millenium city these days, tends to block out a lot of the moonlight.  Added to this, the man is standing directly in front of the one and only garden light in the small park.

There is also tangela pokemon at his side, out of its pokeball, but clearly belonging to the man.

“Ash Ketchum.”  The man speaks up in a stern voice.

“You need something from me?”  Ash responds, regarding the man with suspicion.

“Your match against Zelga.  You’re going to throw it.”

“Yeah- I don’t think so.”

“You don’t have a choice.  I work for Team Rocket, I’ve already bet money on Zelga as per their instructions.”

Ash has to admit that the odds for tonight's betting are indeed heavily in favour of him.  Not many people will be betting on Zelga. No doubt if he were to throw the match, anyone that bet on Zelga would make a lot of money.

“Team Rocket would like to forge a lasting working relationship with you.  Here’s your cut for tonight.” The many takes a P-chip out of his jacket pocket and holds it out towards Ash. “Fifty thousand P.  Take it.”

“And what happens if I don’t?”

“Then I’m to make sure you can’t attend the match and forfeit by absence.”

“You’ll have the officials breathing down your neck if you do that, especially if you guys have placed large bets on an obvious loser.  It will be very suspicious.”

“We’ll survive.  It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Yeah- Still not interested.”

“I see.  Tangela, take him out!”  The man wastes no time ordering his tangela to attack.

Ash immediately jumps behind the wooden bench he was just sitting on moments ago, as the Tangela launches a vinewhip attack at him.  Ash ducks down using the bench as cover, as soon his feet touch ground.

The Tangela’s powerful vine attack, crashes into the back support of the wooden bench and drives right through it, shattering it and sending fragments and splinters of wood flying outwards, with some of them raining down on Ash’s back, as he kneels low to the ground while holding his hands over his head to shield himself.

Ash knows that for a proper damaging vinewhip attack to occur, a pokemon has to launch them from a minimum distance so that they can pick up enough momentum as the travel to strike their target.  A proper vinewhip attack is more about accumulated speed than it is about power, that’s why even small pokemon like bellsprout can pull them off.

Before the splinters of wood have even finished falling to the ground, Tangela starts retracting his tentacles, to get ready for another shot.  Ash was waiting for this exact moment, he knew he could not outrun the first strike, but the extra second or two it would take for Tangela to charge up another shot is all he needed.

Ash springs up, takes two steps backwards and jumps up to reach for the top of the rusty colored brick wall that lines the park.  He pulls himself up and over the wall, just before Tangela can fire off another vinewhip.

“Dammit!”

Ash can hear the man cursing after him, but he is already running across the road and into an alleyway on the opposite side.  He takes a left between the buildings and then goes to hide around the corner of the building on his right.

He would rather not run too far away from the convention centre and end up missing his match, it would be just what this asshole wants.  Ash curses under his breath, he would not have to run at all if he had his pokemon with him. I wonder if that man is going to chase me?

Ash’s question is immediately answered when he overhears the man nearby, “Fuck!  Where did he go.” Ash waits quietly skulking in the shadows, to see what the man will do next, but he doesn’t have to wait long to find out.  

“Growlithe, come out.”  The man summons a growlithe from one of his pokeballs.

Ash curses his luck and immediately starts running again.  Growlithes have a keen sense of smell, no doubt the man summoned it in order to track him down.

Ash runs through the dark alleys between buildings, dodging dumpsters and jumping over piles of garbage as he goes.  He can hear the Growlithe giving chase, it’s closing the distance on him easily.

Ash runs out into a small plaza and jumps over a small iron railing that cordons off an area filled with tables and chairs.  It’s the outdoor patio of a closed restaurant directly to his left. He glances behind him to see the growlithe about ten meters away.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

The Growlithe has stopped chasing him and instead has a glowing white-yellow ball of energy charging in his mouth.  Shit! It’s busy charging a heatwave attack.

Ash knows that there is nowhere to hide here with these dinky little plastic tables and chairs and even if he did, heatwave is a very general area atack and would probably still fry the skin off his body.  He also knows it’s about to release and there is no way he could outrun it.

Growlithe releases the heatwave attack and it starts spreading in diameter as it draws closer to Ash.  Ash does the only thing he can do and dives through the window of the restaurant, shoulder first, to break the glass while still limiting his injuries as he goes through it.

Ash manages to land on his feet and avoid cutting the rest of his body on the broken glass shards all over the ground, his right shoulder and arm however are a different story and have cuts in several places that are now starting to bleed profusely.  There is however no time to dwell on that, he can hear the Growlithe approaching and needs to find another exit fast.

Before he turns away from the broken window, he notices that the Growlithes heatwave attack had started melting the plastic chairs outside, just before it finished.  Man that would have been bad.

Ash runs deeper into the restaurant, there is one double bi-directional swinging door to the left of the far wall and a normal door, probably locked, a little further away, to the far right of the back wall.  Ash immediately heads for the double door since he is pressed for time and it is unlikely to be locked.

The Growlithe has jumped through the window and skillfully avoided the glass on the floor.  Ash can also hear the man and his Tangela approaching, immediately behind it.

Ash has no time to waste and as he darts past a nearby table, he grabs a salt shaker, on his way to the double door and bursts through the door, shoulder first.  He catches a glimpse of the Growlithe darting towards him with amazing speed as the doors swing closed again.

With only a second until the Growlithe bursts through those doors and starts munching on him, Ash has finished unscrewing the lid of the salt shaker that is filled to the brim with ground black pepper, and tosses its contents into the air, in the direction of the door.

Ash turns and carries on running, down the hallway, away from the door, as the Growlithe bursts through it.  The Growlithe however stumbles over himself onto the floor, while howling in pain. It writhes on the ground rubbing its nose wildly with its paws, no doubt, instinctively trying to remove the pepper from it.

Ash however has other concerns, as he runs to the end of the hallway, he realises that it is a dead end, to his right is the kitchen, a fairly large kitchen at that, and to his left are the restrooms.  There is no way out, at least not that he can see.

The man and his Tangela burst through the door.  The man only briefly glances at his ‘downed’ Growlithe and then orders his Tangela to attack.  Ash only has a moment to make a decision, and his decision is ‘left’. Ash bursts into the male restrooms, before the Tangela can launch an attack.

The man grits his teeth in frustration, he is getting tired of this chase.  “Tangela, go gas him out.” His tangela immediately trots forward towards the end of the hallway.  When he is almost at the end, he stops and gets ready to use his stunspore attack.

Before he can however, Ash bursts out of the restrooms and turns to face the Tangela.  Tangela is caught by surprise and instinctively launches out a vine whip in Ash’s direction.  

Ash however has wrapped a thick towel around each of his forearms a few times over.  He raises his arms to protect himself while kneeling down to brace himself. The tentacles collide into the soft padding of his arms with considerable force despite the short distance between the Tangela and himself.  But Ash is able to absorb the hit without falling over thanks to the padding and his stance, although it hurt like hell and he could swear that he felt his bones creaking.

But he is not yet done.  Before the Tangela can pull back his tentacles, from his failed vinewhip attack, ash reaches out with both hands and grabs them.  If this was a bulbasaur or something similar, this would be an amazing tactic. Of course in the case of a tangela, Ash already knows what will happen next.

The Tangela immediately detaches the caught tentacles from his body to free himself.  However Ash knows a Tangela’s instincts inside and out and as soon as the Tangela does this, Ash takes a quick step forward.

This causes the Tangela to panic.  A Tangela’s natural instinct is to avoid a predator by detaching its caught tentacles and running away.  Ash intentionally triggered this natural ‘flight’ response. As the Tangela starts running away, it leaves a trail of stunspore to cover it’s escape.

Ash was hoping for this.  He pulls a zippo lighter out of his pocket, flips open the cover and tosses the now lit lighter into the stunspore cloud.  The stunspores are instantly set ablaze and a trail of fire follows the Tangela through the air as it runs away, ultimately completely engulfing it in a ball of fire.

The Tangela panics and detaches tentacles one after the other as it rolls around on the ground in pain, but it is no use, the stunspore trail originated from its own body and not the tentacles, so his main body is also on fire and as such no amount of tentacle dropping will fix it.  The man has no choice but to immediately recall his Tangela back into its pokeball, before it burns to death.

Ash is about to charge the man, when he realises he has already brought out another pokemon, a Poliwhirl.  Ash curses under his breath at having lost his chance to target the man, he is still too far away, as is the Poliwhirl.  

The Poliwhirl immediately fires a watergun attack at Ash, having already received an order from its master and Ash dives through the closest door to avoid it.  It is in this case, the kitchen door, a double swinging door, just like the entrance to the passageway.

Ash gets up from the floor and quickly looks around for something to use, anything to help him get out of this mess.  The kitchen is filled with many cooking appliance, preparation surfaces and sinks, all made from stainless steel, as well as various pots, pans, crockery and cutlery.

Ash can hear the pitter patter of Poliwhirls feet as it makes its way down the now flooded hallway, to come finish the job.  After glancing towards the door once more, Ash has an idea.

As Poliwhirl approaches the door, Ash reaches over to a nearby fluorescent light that is mounted against the wall and currently responsible for lighting part of the kitchen.  He grabs the power cable running into it and with all his might yanks it out of the light. The light instantly goes dark, but that’s about all. Ash honestly thought there should be sparks or something, but just goes on to assume that that only happens in movies.

Ash rips the cable that has been loosely nailed down with round plastic wire saddles, from the wall and just before Poliwhirl enters the kitchen and touches the open wires of the end he ripped from the light, down to the ground, in the puddle of water that has already leaked under the door.

Ash is careful not to step in the water himself as he does this.  This should take care of the Poliwhirl, but Ash can hear the Growlithe growling in anger in the background, it would seem that he it has already started to recover.

The man at the end of the hallway watches helplessly as his Poliwhirl stops in front of the double door and starts shaking violently with a little bit of smoke rising from his body.  The man can already guess what just happened, a water pokemon’s greatest weakness. The man is really getting tired of this Ash guy.

Before he can do anything else though, Ash bursts through the double doors, pushing a steel serving cart in front of him as he starts running down the hallway with it.  The cart is like one of those you would find an air hostess pushing around on an aeroplane, only a lot bigger.

Ash had not wanted to give the man a chance to call out another pokemon, especially with the Growlithe already on the mend, he did not know how many more pokemon the man might have on him.  As such Ash is now barrelling down the hallway with a serving cart in front of him and a butchers knife and a frying pan at the ready as makeshift weapons.

Growlithe immediately lets off a flamethrower attack.  Ash suspected this might happen, hence the serving cart.  The steady stream of fire hits the front of the cart dead on and fire fans out in all directions around Ash, who is ducking behind the cart, using it as a shield as he steadily advances.  The heat is intense, but aside from some singeing of his clothes and cap, he is able to completely weather the attack.

As Ash is almost on top of the Growlithe, he stops dead and lets the cart barrel forward on its own the last meter or two.  The Growlithe of course jumps to the side to avoid it, but Ash was ready for this and charges it, before it can get its bearings.

The Growlithe turns his head towards the fast approaching Ash, with its mouth open in a snarl.  Ash can see the inside of its mouth glowing as he closes in on it. That’s bad, it’s attempting a firefang bite, Ash brings the frying pan forward and strikes the Growlithes snout from the side.

As the Growlithes head jerks to the side, ash brings the butchers knife around and stabs it into the Growlithes throat.  That should deal a serious blow to it and keep it from using most of its fire attacks.

The Growlithe chunks in pain but brings its head around for another attempt at a bite, despite the hole in its neck and blood trickling down the inside of its throat.  Ash has to, for a moment appreciate the creatures tenacity, but then again it is to be expected of a pokemon that is used to fierce combat and related injuries.

Ash whips the frying pan downwards on its snout to keep it from getting the upper hand and in the same motion, follows up, bringing his knife downwards.  “Sorry about this!” he shouts as he plunges the butchers knife into the Growlithes eye socket and deep into its brain.

The Growlithe drops to the ground instantly, dead.  No pokecenter would be able to fix that.

Ash gets up breathing a sigh of relief, he knew either he or the Growlithe were going to die, he could not spare a moment in that fight to deliver anything other than fatal hits, or it would have been him that died.

The man is standing there in stunned silence after witnessing the savage fight between man and pokemon and the unlikely victor.  Ash takes the chance to dash forward two steps and bring his right fist round, using the full twisting motion of his body, to bury it deep into the man's solar plexus.

The man drops to his knees instantly and keels over sucking in air from the sudden and powerful blow.  Ash does not give him a chance to recover and immediately places his hands on top of the man’s head, pulling it downwards, while he brings his right knee upwards using the full remaining power of his leg muscles, to drive it into the man’s face.

The man falls to the ground unconscious.

Ash stands over him for a moment, glaring at him in disdain, with his bruised forearms, burnt clothes, soggy shoes and blood running down his right arm and shoulder.

Man, this has been a tiring night.