Ash answered the phone just after it had started ringing. "Oh, hello, Professor!"
"Ash, there you are," Professor Oak said. "I heard you'd made it to Viridian City. How's your first day gone so far? Seen any interesting Pokémon?"
"Well, I got a bit held up on Route One," Ash replied, thinking back over his day.
There'd been a storm, and there'd been the Spearow, and then Ho-Oh had flown overhead…
"Oh, I saw some really aggressive Spearow!" he said. "That's interesting, right?"
"It's a little concerning," Professor Oak admitted. "But yes, Spearow are rarer than Pidgey. And how are you getting on with your Pikachu?"
"We're kind of getting to know one another," Ash answered. "We haven't had a proper trainer battle yet, but he seems pretty strong."
"Excellent," Professor Oak said. "Well, my boy, let me know if you run into any trouble."
A few days later, in Viridian Forest – with a smoking Pokémon Centre behind them – Ash was getting ready to catch his first Pokémon.
"Okay, Pikachu, ready for this?" he asked.
"Sure," Pikachu replied. "What are we going for?"
"Well, you're an Electric-type," Ash said, thinking. "So you have trouble with, um… Grass types and especially Ground types. But I guess there aren't many Water or Ice types around here, so it'd be good to get a Bug or Flying type…"
He shook his head. "But what really matters is finding a Pokémon who's up for it, right?"
Pikachu nodded firmly. "Right!"
"How the heck are you able to understand that Pikachu so well, anyway?" Misty asked. "You've known him for, what, four days?"
Ash shrugged. "I dunno… I guess you just have to listen right? Then it's a bit like understanding someone when they talk in complicated words, you get the easy ones and work out the hard ones from context?"
He looked around, scanning for any sign of a wild Pokémon. "It's like when Pokémon are battling, I think? They know the obvious bits, but you can help with the hard bits. And they all understand us without needing to be told."
Misty frowned, thinking about that, and Ash pointed. "There! That Caterpie!"
The Caterpie in question had just lowered itself on a String Shot, dropping to the ground in front of them, and twitched its tail as it regarded the group.
It certainly seemed to want a fight.
"Do you have to catch a Bug?" Misty griped.
"Well, I'm going to see how well Caterpie does!" Ash answered. "Let's start off slow, Pikachu!"
"You got it!" Pikachu agreed, cheeks sparking, and lowered his stance a little as he faced off against his opponent.
He flicked his tail, and a Thundershock flashed out. Caterpie immediately used String Shot, grounding out most of the attack into the web of silk, then flicked its head around and sent the electrical web flying right back at Pikachu.
"Whoops!" Pikachu said, jumping to the side. "Okay, this isn't just an ordinary Caterpie!"
"I know," Ash agreed. "That move was pretty impressive… watch out in case it's got any other tricks!"
"What is it with you, Ash?" Misty asked. "Why do you always end up in these weird situations?"
"What's weird about this?" Ash replied. "It's a wild Pokémon that's strong. Wild Pokémon tend to be strong, right?"
He shrugged. "I've seen them all the time."
"That's really more of a you thing by the sound of it," Misty said.
While they'd been talking, Pikachu had been moving back and forth trying to figure out his opponent.
The electrical silk webs were kind of hard to get past, but Pikachu didn't think they were impossible… it was just hard to actually prove his guess.
Then Caterpie rolled into a wheel shape and charged him, hitting him hard enough to send him flipping backwards, and Pikachu skidded to a halt on the forest floor… then dodged just before a stream of String Shot hit him.
"Pikachu, onto the tree!" Ash called, and Pikachu promptly did so – running over to a tree trunk, scampering up it, then throwing an attack down from above.
Caterpie still stopped it, but it sounded like Ash had a plan…
"Now, keep up the Thundershocks and jump down on a random side!" Ash instructed.
"Right!" Pikachu agreed, realizing the plan, and sustained a tricky barrage of attacks.
It was kind of tiring to throw that many attacks at once, but it meant that Caterpie had to keep the electroweb attack thing up and that blocked their view of Pikachu.
Pikachu landed on the opposite side of Caterpie from Ash, and swung his tail hard to knock the Bug-type into the air. The impact seemed to knock Caterpie for a loop, and their opponent flipped through the air twice before landing with a thump.
Ash promptly threw his Pokéball, and Caterpie vanished inside with a swirl of light.
The 'ball twitched a couple of times, then clicked.
"All right!" Ash said. "I caught my first Pokémon!"
He opened up the Pokedex. "Let's see what it says…"
The device beeped. No data.
"...wow," Pikachu said, panting. "That thing sucks."