Stepping out of the lab, Damien scanned the road ahead of him, expecting his mother to appear in front of him at any moment. His mother has taken care of him, like a real mother, which she really was. She has shouldered every responsibility that came with being a mother, What would happen when she came to know that he is not her real son. Just an imposter posing as her son for the last 10 years? A knot formed in his throat and he chuckled half - heartedly, he was going to take that secret to his grave, his mother didn’t deserve that.

  “Char!”

  Charmander’s voice snapped him out of his useless thoughts, Damien looked down to see the little red lizard with an expression that clearly said, “Let’s get out of here!”

  Damien chuckled to himself, Why was he getting worried over useless thoughts? Only time will tell if his fears will turn true or not. Damien released Vee, who jumped on Damien’s left shoulder and Charmander settled himself on the right. Soon after, the trio hurried over to Damien’s house.

  He entered the house, where his mother was already waiting for him with his Silph Co. bag and all his travelling supplies. Her expression brightened upon seeing him with Charmander, “Is this your starter, Damien? I thought you would choose a Bulbasaur, Why the sudden change?” she asked, “Well, mother, you see, something came over me when I saw him for the first time. So, I ended up choosing him.”

  She smiled, “I know that feeling very well, I had the same feeling when I met Lucario when he was a little Riolu.” remembering her old days. Her hand extended towards Charmander who was standing on his shoulder, “Aren’t you gonna be the strongest Charizard in the world?” Damien opened his mouth to warn her of the incoming danger, but he was too slow. She chuckled, reaching out to pet him under the chin, the little lizard cooed helplessly under her touch.

  Her touch was really magical, it has been just a few minutes since Charmander met his mother, and the Charmander was in her arms, she must have been a good trainer in her time… that Damien was certainly sure of. If not, then how would you explain this situation? Vee, still standing on Damien’s shoulder huffed, her silver fur glistening in the air, glaring at his mother in mock protest.

  “Don’t worry, Vee. No one is ever going to forget you, Charmander is still new in the family. Give him a chance, Okay?” Damien said, petting her on the head where she liked it the most, Vee melted under his touch, her trainer knew her the best.

  “The breakfast is ready!” She said, then the smell of the breakfast finally hit him, the same feeling of comfort washed over in his stomach. She was completely different from the mother in his previous life who used him for his success, never caring about his feelings. So, he was really grateful to her. It lessened the pain of losing Toffee and Arya.

  “Take good care of Vee and Charmander, they’re your responsibility now.” His mother said, her voice gentle but firm.

  “Don’t worry mom, I’m going to take care of them to the best of my ability.” Damien assured her, easing some of her worries.

  “Vee, you’ve to look after them, I'm leaving them in your care.” His mother said to Vee, who was busy eating Poke blocks with Charmander, but gave a nod in return.

  Damien made his way to the door, a knot formed in his chest thinking about leaving his mother alone for a year. Well, she’ll take care of herself, she's strong and Lucario will keep her company, he hugged her for one last time, “I’ll miss you, mom.” He said, his voice cracking slightly.

  “Go, son, your adventure is awaiting for you. You will get new experiences, new friends and the sights you have never seen before.” She said, hugging back her son, “Don’t ever abandon your dreams for me, I’ll always be here for you.”

  0-0-0-0-0-0

  Damien strolled through the Viridian Forest, Vee and Charmander followed right behind him quickly on their steps, the forest filled with the smell of flowers and local flora. The air itself carried a natural fragrance that you could only find in areas like this, a perfect environment for growth of Pokemon. “Let’s see, What kind of Pokemon can we find in the Viridian Forest.” Damien said, opening up his Pokedex, “This area includes: Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle, Kakuna, Pidgey and Pidgeotto, Pikachu, Nidoran and finally Scyther.”

  Vee rubbed against his leg gaining his attention, “What is it, Vee? Oh…” The tree in front of Damien was definitely ripped apart by a Nidoqueen, if he looked at the marks left on the tree. “Charmander and Vee stay alert, But it might be easier if we talked with a Nidoqueen, she might’ve a NIdoran who would want to go on an adventure with us.”

  Vee and Charmander both agree with their trainer.

  The trio decided to move further into the forest, where trainers with no badges were allowed to go, lest they get attacked by some wild Pokemon for entering their territory. Damien really didn’t wanted to get seriously hurt on first day of his journey, they continued to move for some hours after which they reached a canopy, where a group of Nidoran were playing with each other under the care of two Nidorino and Nidorana were taking care of the little ones.

  Damien quickly took out his blue Pokedex and started taking pictures of the group he had encountered. He didn’t notice Charmander shaking his legs and Vee growling in front of him.

  “Uh… Char!” Charmander said nervously, pointing toward a nearby tree, where an armoured purplish figure rested against a tree. From the sturdy curve of her broad shoulders and the unique, mottled pattern of her purplish hide, it was unmistakably a female Nidoqueen. She regarded them with a calm, assessing gaze, as if gauging if we were a threat to her offsprings. Damien’s heart pounded in his chest when he looked up and came face to face with The Nidoqueen.

  “Looks like she finds us interesting enough to not attack us on sight.” Damien said calmly, much more calmly than he felt inside in this situation.

  “Hey, my name is Damien Terrous. I’m a new trainer. Do you know what a Trainer is?” Damien said, waving his hand to draw her attention, trying to keep his heartbeat in control, which was proving to be a lot harder with each passing second. Damien couldn’t fumble at this opportunity, who knows when the next one would come or not?

  “Well, in simple terms, I want to catch a Nidoran, who has the drive for battle and wants to travel the world. I promise I’ll make him/her the strongest Nidoking or Nidoqueen in Kanto, I can share some Poke blocks with you.”

  The Nidoqueen gave them a long look, glancing back and forth between Damien, Vee and Charmander before shouting “NIDO-NID-QUEEN” and then went back in the canopy, Damien shared a look with Vee ‘What the hell happened?’ Vee made a face that clearly said like I know. Damien yawned, the tiredness finally catching up with him, it looks like they would have to set their camp in the canopy and this place also provided them with nice protection, if the Nidoqueen agreed to let them stay here.

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  Damien was sitting on a rock, when they heard some rustling from the bushes, a blue blue blur landed in front of them, Nidoqueen and she was holding a little purple reptilian Pokemon with mammal features and the brat was clearly fighting with his mother, typical rebellious kid of the family. The mother and son were clearly arguing with each other, if I am guessing the situation correctly, “Are… Damien squinted as he got a good look at the Nidoran, “You trying to sell off your kid to me, So, he would get out of the forest, if I’m understanding this correctly.”

  The Nidoqueen looked up at him and nodded, “NIDO-NID-QUEEN” he was dumbfounded, just what was happening, he was Damien Terrous not Ash Ketchum. ‘Am I injected with Ketchum’s luck?’ Damien thought, rubbing his eyes. The mommy Nidoqueen dropped her son, who looked at Damien as if sizing him up.

  Damien met his gaze without any fear and said, “Hey, Nidoran my name is Damien Terrous, my dream is to become the best Pokemon Trainer in the world. Don’t worry I won’t force you into coming with me, It’s your choice.” Nidoran seemed to regard him for some time, then he spoke to his mother something in her ear, the trio weren’t able to hear anything.

  “NIDO-NID-IDO” The Nidoqueen said, “So, Nidoran wants to battle me, to see if I am worth following around.” Damien asked, to which the Nidoqueen simply nodded.

  “Charmander, watch how both of us battle and try to learn anything new that you can.” Damien says to Charmander, who nods eager to follow his trainer’s commands.

  “You are up, Vee. It’s been a while since we had a good battle.” Damien said to Vee, she simply jumped forward and Nidoran got some space to settle himself and growled at Vee which was a mistake. Both Pokemon sized each other up, and glared at each other, the atmosphere suddenly got cold, there was a chill in the air.

  The Eevee looks up at her opponent and releases a growl from her throat, no sane person would believe such a thing about her.

  Damien looks up at his Pokedex, and checks her movepool.

  Tackle

  Baby-Doll Eyes

  Tail Whip

  Helping Hands

  She even knew the moves, Double Edge and Shadow Ball even if they were far from being mastered, she had all the potential to match the might of Pikachu. He truly believed in her.

  The Nidoran cries out and runs forward like a mad bull.

  “Vee, use Baby-Doll Eyes then aim Shadow Ball at his legs.” Damien calmly instructs Vee, who watches Nidoran running toward her with a Tackle in all seriousness,

  Vee dodges the move without the command of her trainer at the last second, and looks cutely in the direction of Nidoran, who looked like a teenager who fell in love with Vee at first sight.

  The Nidoqueen looked disappointed at her son’s action, as if not expecting that from him.

  ‘Poor Creature… another victim of Vee.’ Damien thought as Vee without any remorse, fired a Shadow Ball at Nidoran’s legs.

  Nidoran tumbled on the ground and crashed against a tree, Nidoran came out of his stupor and looked surprised at the unexpected turn of events. He stood up with some difficulty and resolutely at Damien, not intending to back out of the battle.

  “I respect your determination, Nidoran. But, let’s end it now, Shadow Ball, Vee.” Damien says with respect visible in his tone and orders at the same time. The Shadow Ball sliced through the air without any resistance and hit on Nidoran’s face without any mercy.

  Nidoran cries out for the first time since the match started, the glowing orb of dark energy smashes against his scales, tearing them apart from his skin. Without wasting any more time, Damien throws a Poke Ball at the fallen reptilian Pokemon, it touches the Nidoran swallowing him whole, the Poke Ball shakes for three times and finally clicks, signalling his capture.

  Damien smiles on the successful capture and picks up the Poke Ball, “Welcome to the team, partner. I hope we will have wonderful adventures together.” he said, after releasing Nidoran from the Poke Ball, Nidoran landed on the ground and released a Battle Cry.

  “You alright, buddy? And no ‘Be The Man’ Bullshit in the team from now, okay?” Nidoran simply nods and tries to stand up, the damage to his scales was quite serious, Damien seats himself on the ground and takes out a Potion from his Silph Co. bag. He applies the Potion to his scales, slowly but surely the scales start to heal and grow, within moments Nidoran’s scales were good as new.

  He thanks his mother again for preparing his supplies and gives one Oran Berry to Nidoran, “Eat it to replenish your energy, Nidoran.” The said reptilian mammal simply nods and finishes it in seconds. Next, Damien looks up at Nidoqueen and says, “NIdoran’s mom can we stay the night here?” Nidoran’s mom agreed to let Damien and his team stay the night in the canopy.

  0-0-0-0-0-0

  Next Day, Damien and his team started their trek after saying their goodbye to Nidoran’s family.

  Damien and his team have decided to make their camp near the lake leading to the north of Pewter City.

  “Ugh…” A sweat soaked Damien groans. The group had been travelling for six hours, the early heat in the morning was merciful, making the first several hours leading to and after the sunrise somewhat peaceful. So, Damien has decided to get some training in order, Nidoran was running around a tree, building his endurance because he was going to play an important role in the Pewter City Gym Battle.

  Vee was trying to master Shadow Ball and Double Edge. She was firing Shadow Ball again and again, Damien was hoping to decrease the time it took to cast Shadow Ball every time and building her stamina in the meantime.

  For Charmander, he was going to be the weakest link against rock type Pokemon, so he was teaching him the move- Metal Claw.

  Metal Claw is a physical attack that increases the said Pokemon’s attack, the funny thing is it can be stacked up to six times by repeatedly using it. Without it, his Charmander really was limited in his ability to fight rock Pokemon at the current evolution stage.

  So, Charmander continued to slash at the rock, trying to get Metal Claw right, trying to master the move. After practicing it for a while, Charmander started to get the hang of it right, he’ll master it before reaching Pewter City.

  They continued their training until after the afternoon, before finally calling it a day.

  Suddenly, a voice comes from his back, Damien turns and came face to face with a boy wearing strange armour and holding a freaking Katana in his hands. The horns on his helmet were carved like a yellow beetle, giving him an imposing look, even if his face was uncomfortable to look at.

  Is that a real sword, are they even legal?

  He really wanted to avoid this jerk, even if Gary set this fool up.

  “I have finally found you, Are you a trainer from Pallet town? I challenge you to a Pokemon Battle?” The samurai says, the sword’s edge gleaming menacingly in the sunlight, he really should stay away from that fool and preferably his sword.

  He should finish this already, Ash can handle him later…

  “Sure.” Damien replies instantly, surprising the Samurai from his eagerness to battle.

  The Samurai was in for a lot of surprise, even the real Damien beat the shit out of him, who was going to stop this best version of Damien.

  "Okay, so what will be the rules?" Damien asked, this was going to be his first official battle, after traveling for one and a half day.

  He was kind of looking forward to it.

  “Official tournament rules are fine by me. Two-on-Two is fine Pokemon.”

  Damien nodded, fidgeting his Charmander’s Pokeball in his fingers.

  “Pinsir, assume your battlefield.” Samurai shouted, releasing his first Pokemon in the match.

  The Pinsir with its light brown body segmented by thin lines and topped with horns wide enough to strangle any poor creature trapped into it, was a truly underrated Pokemon.

  Damien gripped his fingers tightly, his heart beating loudly at the thought of one more Pokemon Battle.

  He really was a battle freak just like his fa.…

  No time to think about that right now, there will be a time for that thought.

  Let's end this battle quickly and get on our way.

  Charmander jumped from his side into the battlefield.

  I can do this.

  Damien picked up a rock, and Samurai nodded, understanding that the match would start as soon as the rock hit the ground.

  He thought over the battle in his mind. Okay, let's stomp this match in best way possible.

  The sound of the rock thudding against the ground was the signal.

  “Vice Grip!”

  “Dodge it.”

  The Pinsir lunged forward with a speed not possible for a Pokemon his size, it looks like Samurai wasn't the fool he was shown in the anime. Charmander was already darting to the left.

  “Smoke Screen!”

  Charmander's cheeks puffed slightly as he unleashed multiple balls of smoke at Pinsir.

  “Quick Attack!”

  Pinsir dodged some of the Smoke Screens but Charmander changed the trajectory of the balls at sudden, hitting the bug in face which he wasn't able to dodge due to his momentum.

  “Metal Claw!” Damien orders seizing the opportunity .

  A white aura envelopes Charmander’s claws as he swung it with full power, tearing the poor Pinsir’s skin apart causing him to scream.

  Pinsir’s scream echoes through the forest, declaring Damien’s victory to the forest.

  The Pinsir falls unconscious on the ground, Samurai quickly recalls his partner ensuring his safety.

  I'm Damien Terrous. Nice to meet you, and thanks for a good match" he greeted, extending his hand to the kid, who blinked, apparently having forgotten as well.

  “Right." The kid smiled, reaching over to shake his hand. “I’m Zoro Taro and likewise.”

  Damien blinked, “You can't be serious.”

  “Oh but I am.”

  “Let's meet again sometime and have a good match together.” Damien said, his voice filled with some respect for the unexpected rival.

  “Here, take this and apply it on your Pinsir.” Damien handed him the Potion which Zoro quickly applied to his Pinsir.

  “Thanks for the help, you helped me even if I challenged you first. I will do anything you tell me to.”

  “Really!” Damien asked.

  “Yes!”

  “Okay then listen, a trainer from Pallet Town would be coming, he's really strong so don't go easy on him in any way.”

  “Sure, my friend.”

  Vee gave him an odd look in his arms, which he promptly ignored whistling in the air.

  That day, someone felt a chill run down their spine.

  “Did you just Thundershock me, Pikachu.”

  Pikachu just blinked.

  0-0-0-0-0

  After saying goodbye to Zoro, Damien continued his trek to Pewter City.

  They eventually reached the outskirts of Pewter City.

  This is it, love," Damien murmurs to Vee, who perks her ears. "This is the first real step. The journey of a very literal Pokemon Champion begins here. Are we ready?”

  The little creature says nothing but presses her cheek to her trainer's.