At Ash's home, Ash was changing into the clothes his mother had prepared for him. His mother was constantly reminding him of various things, "...you must eat on time when you're out, when it's time to sleep..."
"I know, Mom!" Ash replied with a wry smile.
"Really, you child. But this is your first time going out on your own. I don't know if you can take care of yourself." As she spoke, his mother helped him put on the backpack she had prepared.
Finally, Ash put on his bright red hat, completing his preparations.
"Well, Mom, I'm off!"
"Be careful on the road!"
"Okay!"
Ash stepped out of his house and onto the road. His legs started running on their own as he looked into the distance. The warm sunlight shone on Ash's sunny smile.
When he ran out of town, he stopped, looked back, and shouted, "Goodbye, Pallet Town! When I return, I'll be a great Trainer!"
With that, he continued running. The ten-year-old seemed to have boundless energy. The thought of countless adventures ahead excited Ash.
"Come out, Charmander." In the grass of Route 1, he summoned Charmander.
"Oh~" The summoned Charmander seemed very happy.
"Well, Charmander, our journey starts here. Are you excited?" Ash raised his hands in a cheer, but Charmander didn't seem to understand what he was doing.
Ash laughed awkwardly, "You don't understand what I'm saying, do you? But now we're going to start catching other Pokémon, starting with..."
As Ash was thinking, a bird with brown feathers jumped out of the grass next to him. Ash immediately opened the Pokédex Professor Oak had given him and scanned the bird. The Pokédex immediately emitted a mature male voice, "Pidgey, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. It dislikes fighting and hides in tall grass to peck at bugs."
"Pidgey, huh. Alright, Charmander, go!"
"Oh~" Charmander took adorable steps towards the Pidgey that had suddenly appeared.
"Use Scratch!"
Charmander immediately opened its small claws and scratched at Pidgey.
"Coo! Coo!" Pidgey quickly noticed Charmander's attack and flew away, flapping its wings.
"Hey, wait, wait!" Ash didn't expect Pidgey to fly away. He hurriedly threw a Poké Ball, but it couldn't reach the already flying Pidgey.
"Sigh, I didn't expect to fail the first time. I thought it would be easy!" Ash sighed. Charmander also sighed along with Ash.
Seeing Charmander's reaction, Ash couldn't help but pat its head and laugh, "It can't be helped. Let's work hard next time, Charmander!"
"Oh!"
"Coo! Coo! Coo!"
Suddenly, from the direction where Pidgey had flown away, the sound of Pidgey's call came again. This time, it sounded even more panicked than when it flew away.
"Ah, it's that Pidgey again. Why did it fly back? What's that..." Ash squinted and vaguely saw something dark behind Pidgey.
"Coo! Coo! Coo!" Pidgey flew straight towards Ash, and gradually, Ash could see what the dark thing was. It seemed to be a red bird.
He took out the Pokédex and scanned it. The Pokédex said, "Spearow, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. It flies around very quickly and has a very violent temper. It will continuously attack any Pokémon or person that provokes it."
"Uh, that guy, it didn't provoke a flock of Spearow, did it!" Ash's forehead was covered in cold sweat. "Charmander, run!" Ash immediately called Charmander to run in the opposite direction.
At this time, Gary, who had already reached Viridian City, looked back at the road behind him and sighed, "I didn't expect a flock of Spearow to appear there. Luckily, I avoided them. I wonder how that useless Ash is doing."
"Oh! Oh!" Charmander's short legs struggled to keep up, so Ash had to pick up Charmander and run as fast as he could.
At this point, Charmander pointed at the Poké Ball on Ash's waist, and Ash realized that he could just put Charmander in the ball.
After putting Charmander away, Ash couldn't outrun the flock of birds chasing him. In no time at all, the pursued Pidgey caught up with Ash.
"Why are you running towards me when you're the one who provoked the Spearow?" Ash shouted at the Pidgey above his head.
"Coo! Coo! Coo!"
Ash couldn't tell if it was apologizing or something else. He could only think about what to do.
Should he turn around and fight them? Ash looked at Charmander's Poké Ball and immediately shook his head, dismissing the idea. If he kept going like this, he would be caught.
The Pidgey flying above Ash suddenly noticed that the zipper on Ash's backpack was not closed and immediately dove in.
"Hey, what are you doing? I can't fly as fast as you!" Ash took off his backpack and pulled out the Pidgey hiding inside.
Ahead was a forest. Ash thought about using the fact that Spearow couldn't fly freely in the forest to lose them. With this in mind, he grabbed the Pidgey that hadn't flown very high.
"Coo! Coo! Coo!"
"Don't panic, I have a plan!"
With that, Pidgey calmed down.
Then, Ash held Pidgey and entered the forest. As Ash had expected, the flock of Spearow couldn't fly freely in the forest. So they split into two groups, one flying above the forest to roughly observe Ash's direction; the other weaving through the forest, chasing Ash, but at a slower speed.