Pokemon: The Journey

While travelling towards Viridian City, Ash had taken some berries from near the trail. They were the Persim and the Razz berries.

A little fun fact: the Persim berries used to be known as Bitter berries in the past.

They had completely come across the Razz berries by surprise. They did not even know that it grew near the route. Ash was going along the path to Viridian when he thought he could take a shortcut around a bend. It did reduce their travel time, but it also ended up with them coming across it. The professor had never mentioned it being found here. He would have to tell the professor about it when he called back after reaching the Pokémon Center.

Among other things as well, he grimaced.

He was walking with Pikachu in his hands, who was still injured and resting, but was lucid enough to hear him talk.

To pass the time and to have Pikachu up to speed with what was going on when he had fallen unconscious, he began recounting what had happened from his end.

He could tell Pikachu was pissed and was already plotting ways to hurt that girl when they came across her.

He couldn't blame Pikachu when he was in the same boat.

It was nearly sunset when they arrived near Viridian City.

Then they heard the police intercom announcing, "Attention, all Viridian citizens! Attention, all Viridian citizens! Pokémon poachers have been spotted near the city. I repeat, Pokémon poachers have been spotted near the city. You are expected to remain alert, cautious, and report the presence of any suspicious trainers. I repeat, report the presence of any suspicious trainers."

It was at that time that the broadcast ended when Officer Jenny saw Ash walking with an injured Pikachu in his hands.

Smirking as if she had struck gold, she came out from the police box at the entrance to Viridian City and blocked Ash's path.

"Halt, Pokémon thief! You are under arrest!"

Taking one of his hands in hers and nearly dropping Pikachu, she started to place handcuffs on his arm.

Panicking, Ash replied, "Wait, wait, wait! What are you doing?!"

Scoffing, as if she were in disbelief that she had to explain something so basic to someone who she believed to be a Pokémon thief, she still said as if she was telling the truth, "You are a Pokémon thief. Of course, I am going to catch you!"

"Pokémon thief?! I am no Pokémon thief!"

Scoffing again, she snidely asked, "Then why is Pikachu not in its Pokéball when it is injured? How do you intend to explain that?!"

"My Pikachu doesn't like his Pokéball, so I will not force him to go inside his ball!"

"Then what about its injuries, huh?!"

"I used up all of my potions and berries after his fight with the Spearow..."

"HAHAHAHA"

Ash felt his twitch at the officer's laughter.

"You-you mean to tell me that an electric-type like Pikachu lost to a Flying-type Spearow?... Wait, your face says that it did. HAhahaha."

The officer whose name he had yet to hear was still laughing at his expense.

After the laugh had gone out of her system, she calmed down. She still had one of Ash's arms in cuffs.

"...You should also know that a Gyarados nearly ate us and then a girl on a cycle assaulted us and left us there to be eaten by the Gyarados."

Giving Ash now a blank look, she said, "...Kid, the only person that matches that description is a gym leader, and they would have helped you or defeated the Gyarados instead of assaulting you, if what you said about a Gyarados being present in Route 1 can be believed, that is. Without any form of identification, you are under arrest for Pokémon abuse, stealing Pokémon, misinformation, and preventing your arrest!"

"Why can't you use my Pokédex to identify me, then?!"

"You also stole a Pokédex, too?! That's great; that's undeniable proof that you are a thief. The only place you can get one is from Professor Oak or one of the trainers under his sponsorship of which there are only 3 trainers, which you would not have obtained at all."

Taking out the device from his pocket without his consent, she smugly pressed some buttons, believing that she now had undeniable proof of his crimes. Her smug smile turned to one of annoyance when she saw that it matched the boy's description. She also knew that the data could not have been changed unless it had been manually done by him. If it were the case, he was one of the sponsored trainers.

"...You are the fourth person from Pallet Town who has come to Viridian City today. You must be the weakest and the most pathetic of the lot, then."

Taking off the cuffs, she told him to scram to the Pokémon Center.

Ash did not move.

Narrowing her eyes at him, she asked, "Well?..."

Pointing at her hand that still had his Pokédex, he told her, "I cannot go until I get my Pokédex back. It's important after all."

"No."

"No? What do you mean no?! It's mine!"

"I just feel like not giving it to you. Do what you want. If you want to take it, you have to take it from me forcefully."

Narrowing his eyes, he stood there for some time and finally said, "You are going to use it to arrest me for stealing, or attacking an officer for no reason, aren't you?"

Her smug smile told him everything he needed to know.

Growling, he thought for some time, then he smirked.

"You give it to me now, or you have to explain to the people behind you what you are doing, harassing a kid."

Panicking, she gave the Pokédex back to him and turned around to explain to the people...

Only to find that there were no people and the boy was running away into the city with his Pokédex in his hands.

Getting angry, she was about to give chase on her bike, but thought the better of it and went inside the booth.

"After all, I don't need to do anything tonight..." she murmured smugly.

---------------------------------------------------

Finding a kind citizen from who he asked the directions to the Pokémon Center and asking about the officer, and the nearly vacant place, he came to know that the officer's name was Jenny and she has been warning every day for the last six months but there were no thieves to be found at all. The police was organizing an event where hot-air ballons with different Pokémon as the balloon would float over the city at night while there was going to be some musical event as well on the other side of the city away from the Center as an event celebrating the start of a league season. It was proposed by Jenny as well. All the trainers who would have left their Pokémon at the Center would be attending the event.

Following the man's instructions, he found himself staring at a large building that was the Pokémon Center.

'Man, that's huge.'

Mentally nodding, and closing his mouth to avoid looking stupid, he stepped into the building.

There he handed his Pokémon to Nurse Joy and her Chansey after getting berated for not taking proper care of his Pokemon, but she apologized after he showed her the empty Potion bottles that he asked where to dispose of.

He noticed that the lobby was empty.

He went to the phone booth to call his mom home, and the Professor.

The talk with his mom went the same as the original and was nearly the same with the Professor, except that...

"Hahahaha, I knew I could trust you. Now Gary owes me a million dollars."

"Professor, about those..."

After hearing his experience on the first day, the Professor was intrigued, and a little bit skeptical.

"I want to believe you Ash, but you could not have seen that flying Pokémon, and I can't help but be skeptical about your claims about the Raticate and Gyarados. They are too powerful to be present here in the Route 1. And in all the years as a professor that I had spent here I have yet to hear or see such a place. That makes it even better of a chance to study but without video or picture proof, I cannot just leave my lab to find such a place with pinpoint accuracy. I am sorry for what happened with Rattata. You have my condolences."

"Video and picture proof?"

"Don't you know that you could take photos and record videos with audio via the Pokédex, and you can send it to me for my study?"

"Professor, did you even give me the update? You never told me about it previously."

"Hmm? Place the dex in the slot in the phone for me will you? Hmm... Okay thanks. Now I am connecting, finding what upgrades, and... there is no software to take photos or videos and some other stuff. Oops?"

Ash gave the professor a blank look, while he was decidedly ignoring looking Ash in the face and giving the necessary upgrades.

"Okay. It's all done. Take out the dex. These are the buttons you need to press to take a photo and take a video with audio and send them to me, so listen carefully..."

After going through Professor's instructions, Ash had ended the call and was using the photo taking feature of the Pokédex. He just pressed the buttons required, when he was called to the front desk to collect his Pokémon, completely forgetting that he had left the video taking feature run.

"If you had not used the potions, they would have been in worse conditions. Thanks for the small mercies. I am now just going to clean up the place while Chansey will help me. Do not try anything reckless."

He was told those words when he was bonding with his Pokémon, and he promised Spearow to let him have battles when he got the chance and returned him.

Just as Nurse Joy and Chansey were about to go clean up and Ash and Pikachu were going to head to their room to rest for the night, the lights flickered and the window of the roof broke.

Staring blankly at the people that came down, Ash and Pikachu had the same thought.

'I just hate today.'