I woke up slowly as my alarm clock continued to ring. I streched and turned it off. At first I thought it would be a regular day till I remembered what made that day special.
I leapt out of bed and started putting on my clothes in a hurry. I ran, almost tripping over my pant leg, down the stairs. I was running all over the house to get things ready for my big journey.
"Slow down, Ash!" My mother yelled as I zoomed by.
"I can't!" I said with my voice muffled by the piece of toast I was eating. "This is the day, and I don't want to go unprepared!" I started packing things into my backpack. I felt my mother's hand on my shoulder.
"Ash. Professor Oak is not going to lat you go without a pokemon." I slowed down a bit an nodded in agreement.
After breakfast I rushed to Professor Oak's lab. As I burst in the door I said, "Professor Oak! I need my pokemon! Where are you?" I searched the entire lab but there was no sign of him. I can't believe he would leave me I thought. "I guess I'll have to get pokemon on my own!" I stormed out and off to the near by forest. As I entered the heavily wooded area, I heard a voice.
"Ash you can't go yet! There are wild pokemon out there!" It was Professor Oak.
"I didn't know where you were." I replied.
"Well don't be foolish, you need a pokemon first. Come back to my lab with me." He led on as I followed behind. He brought me back to his lab. Inside he brought me to a table with three pokeballs on it.
"Which pokemon do you want?" He pointed to the balls.
"Which one? Which one?" I said, scaning with my eyes over each ball. Well the middle one is always a good bet. I thought. "This one!" I snatched the middle pokeball. There was a bright light as my pokemon exited his pokeball.
"So you chose the middle one eh? I did the same thing when I started out." Professor Oak picked up my new pokemon and put him in my arms. The pokemon opened his mouth and said....
"Squirtle! Squirtle!" I hugged him closer.
"Professor, he's great. Thank you so much!" I looked at squirtle with pride. He looked back with shimmering eyes. Then Gary came in.
"Don't worry Gary you can choose from these two." Professor Oak pointed to the last two pokeballs. Gary eyed Squirtle and I.
"Well since Ash chose Squirtle, I'll choose...Bulbasaur!" Gary grabbed the pokeball without a thank you and shoved it in my face. "Ash if you're not too chicken, why don't we battle?"
"Chicken! I'm no chicken! Let's get him! What do ya' say Squirtle?"
"Squirtle!" Squirtle put on a mean, challenging face.
"Let's go Gary!" I grinned. 
"Bulbasaur, go!" Gary yelled as his bulbasaur popped out of the ball
"Bulbasaur!" it glared at me 
"Go Squirtle!" Squirtle ran out ready to fight.
"Bulbasaur tackle him!" Bulbasaur charged and hit Squirtle.
"Squirtle!" Squirtle said in pain and surprise.
"Go Squirtle! Use tackle on him now!" I called to him. The battle went on like this until both our pokemon were so low that it only took one hit to bring the bulbasaur down.
"How can this be?! Water pokemon are weak against grass type!" Gary scooped up his fainted bulbasaur. "Just you wait, Ash. I'll beat you and become the #1 pokemon master. Smell ya later." With those words he left.
"I can't belive it! You did it Squirtle! You're the best!" Squirtle looked at me exhausted. I picked him up. Professor Oak healed Squirtle back to his old self.
"You can name him if you like." Professor Oak explained.
"How about...Mertle?" Squirtle nodded and jumped in his pokeball 
. I bid my mother good-bye and head out on my journey.
I marched out into the woods. I was feeling pretty proud after I defeated Gary. I started to daydream about becoming a pokemon master when I tripped. "Aahhh!" I screamed as I fell hard on my face. I looked behind me to see what I tripped over.
"Weedle! Weedle, Weedle!" It looked very angry. I whipped out the pokedex that Professor Oak gave me and pointed it at the little bug.
"Weedle, a poison/bug type pokemon with a large stinger a top it's head. Weedles are usually peaceful but when disturbed they use the stinger on their head to poison their enemy." I shut the pokdex.
"Weeeeeddddlllleeee!!!" it yelled as it charged at me stinger down. I ran as fast as I could.
"No! No! You stupid bug! Attack other pokemon not me!" It was still coming at me. "Mertle go! Help me!" I threw Mertle's pokeball to the ground and he popped out.
"Squirtle squirtle squir-" Mertle started to say when we blew past.
"Mertle get it! And watch out for it's stinger!" Mertle tried to tackle it but missed. I started to slow down. I gotta run more often Mertle tried to get it but it was the fastest weedle I'd ever seen. Suddenly I tripped over a metapod that was just lying there.
I landed hard on my hands and knees. I looked back as the weedle came at me.
"Squirtle!!" Mertle tackled it. The weedle flew back, then got on it's feet. When Mertle tackled it he accidently flipped onto his back so he was now vulnerable to the weedle. The weedle charged at Mertle. "Squirtle Squirtle!!"
"Noooooo!!" I leapt trying to get Mertle to safty when I felt the stinger push into me. Mertle tumbled over off his back. I lay on my stomach as the weedle removed his stinger. I clutched my side in pain.
"Squirtle! Squirt squirtle!!" Mertle took his fury out on the weedle. The little bug soon fainted. Mertle brought over the weedle and that lousy little Metapod I tripped over.
"Squirtle?" I took out two pokeballs and caught both pokemon.
"Squirtle, go get help. I'm poisoned. Please be careful." I told Squirtle to go to Viridian city for help. If he showed up at Pallet town my mom would never let me become a true pokemon trainer.
I didn't know if Mertle made it or not but the poison was taking it's toll. I began to wonder if Mertle was coming back. Did he fall on his back? Did he heal Weedle and Metpod first? Did he give up on me all together? These thoughts were running through my mind as I sunk into unconsciousness. I thought I heard something in the distance but everything went black.
My eyelids felt heavy as Ilifted them to reveal a blurry world. I was having a hard time beliving I could awaken.
"So your finally up. You had us so worried." My vision cleared and I saw a nurse with pink hair leaning over me. 
"Who...where am I?" Nothing made sense. I should've been in the wods.
"I am Nurse Joy and you are in Viridian's pokecenter. You're lucky your squirtle was so quick to get here. You had as really worried. Oh and here are your other pokemon." Nurse Joy handed me my new weedle an metapod I was about to take them out when Mertle bounded in.
"Squirtle!! Squirtle! Squirt squirt!" Mertle ran up to me. I instantly sat up and felt a sharp pain in my side.
"Ow!" I grabbed my side. Mertle hugged me, but made sure not to hurt me. "By the way thatnk you Nurse Joy."
"Don't thank me. You should thank your squrtle. There's a story behind this ad I would love to hear it." at that point I remembered about my metapod and my weedle. Reluctantly I took them out.
"Weedle? Weedle!" It ran straight at me.
"I'll name you..." I thought for a minute about what to name weedle. "I'll name you Tweedle and I'll name my metapod Al.!" They nodded. I put them back in their pokeballs and got up. "Where are you going?" Joy asked.
"I'm a pokemon trainer and I can't be a master if I stay here." I thanked the nurse again and I left to catch more pokemon.
Before I went back out to the woods I decided to go to the pkemart. At the mart I picked up a few heals and some morre pokeballs.
I countinued my journey but this time I kept Mertle at my side.
© 1997 spideyax@aol.com
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