Chapter Twenty Four- Coming to terms, prepping for the future

Mason lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling of his room in the Pokémon center, a look of frustration on his face. It had been three hours since Jaun had dropped him, Misty, Ash and Brock off at the nearest landfall to where the SS-Anne had gone down. It had taken them two hours to get there so it was early morning when they had arrived and had gotten rooms.

And since laying down Mason couldn't get the events from the SS Anne and his talk with Jaun on the way there out of his head.

After finding out that Micheal, the snob, had returned to Kalos via teleportation. He had of course reported both the assault and theft of his stone to Jaun, with Brock backing up his words, telling him how the little bastard had gotten Jessie and James to help knock him out and drag him off, being bound and being kicked by the scumbag until he'd gotten what he wanted.

Jaun had of course been outraged to hear what had happened and assured him that he would file a report on both the assault and the theft with the league, but he had also mentioned that he shouldn't hold out hope of seeing anything come of it.

-.-.-Flashback-.-.-

"What?" Mason asked in shock, his eyes wide as he looked at Jaun as they stood within the mouth of his Wailord, "But why not?" he said as he clenched his fists at his side.

Jaun sighed, "as much as what he did was criminal, the young Mr Fawly is a Kalos national, and his father holds a lot of pull there. As Kalos is not a signed region of the League Alliance, they do not fall under the same charter. And given the considerable pull his father has, it's unlikely that they will do anything about such claims."

Mason clenched his fists harder as he put together the pieces. The League Alliance was still in its early years at this point in time, currently only Kanto, Jhoto, Hoenn and Sinnoh were signed to the alliance which had only started gaining traction a few years before when Lance had become the joint champion of both Kanto and Jhoto and had partnered together with Steven Stone to unite the three regions, Sinnoh had only joined up a few months prior to his arrival in this world and things were still settling. Given that Kalos wasn't a part of the alliance, and because the Snob's daddy would protect him, there was jack shit they would do about it.

-.-.-Flashback end-.-.-

Of course Mason hadn't mentioned to Jaun, or the others, just what the stone was. He knew that Mega evolution was something that wasn't discovered in either the anime or manga for a few years at least, he didn't want to have to explain how he knew about it or anything like that, so he had let the matter drop, though his stomach had been turning ever since.

As soon as Jaun had dropped them off he had apologized for not being able to take them to the main land but needed to see Jessie, James and Meowth into custody as quickly as possible, and after ensuring that there would be a ferry arrival to the island soon, he had teleported away with his Slowbro taking the trio of Rockets with him.

Mason had secluded himself in his room since then, getting himself his own room, requesting peace from the others for their stay. They likely thought he was still sour about losing his stone, but really that was only part of it, it was what losing it meant in the long term for him that had him concerned.

After his talk with Brock on the SS Anne, and how his eyes had been opened wide to how big the gap truly was between him and the powers of this world, he had seen the stone as his first step to perhaps filling that gap, to being able to face those powers on equal footing. Losing it like he had, so soon after getting it, had felt like being punched in the gut, especially now knowing it was extremely unlikely that he would get it back.

He'd been riding a high with how things had been going for him, winning three badges, raking in the cash from those battles, catching so many Pokémon and coming out on top with everything he did. To find out he was even smaller than he had thought he was on a global scale, and have his chance to change that right in his hand only to have it snatched away, it had left him shaken.

It had all been a major wake up call for him, facing those two Rocket Punks with Pokémon much stronger than his, seeing the difference in power they and then Juan's Pokémon had compared to his. It made him realize that he couldn't joke around like he had been doing, he needed to be more active, he needed to change things up.

He had been reluctant to do so in the past, things like taking advantage of his knowledge to make himself stronger because he feared what doing such would mean for the world. Ash, for as much as he was an idiot at times, had critical roles to play in the future and he was reluctant to "Steal" any of his party members before they became his so that he didn't weaken him and cause him to fail when it mattered the most.

He could have easily pulled Charmander into his team, it would have meant having a major powerhouse like Chariard in his roster later, but he hadn't because Charizard played a critical role in Ash's team and without Charizard Mason severely doubted Ash would be able to get out of half of the situations he would get into in the future.

But now things would change, while he decided he still would steer clear of stealing future Pokémon from Ash or the others, he would do his damndest to get others into his team if the opportunity raised its head, he would need them.

But that itself might prove to be a problem, he realized as he sat up in his bed, thinking back over the events that had led up to him being there. Team Rocket had held the SS Anne back from sailing when it was meant to, that in itself might not have appeared to be a big deal, but it had changed things.

With the SS Anne not sailing when it was meant to, it had led to it missing the storm that had originally sunk it in the anime. That had led to Team Rocket's raid going on longer than it had originally. And when the trainers on board started putting up a fight to keep their Pokémon, things had escalated further when Team Rocket used Electrodes to make the ship start sinking in order to leverage the trainers freedom for their Pokémon when things got tight for them.

All of this meant that currently the group was a full day behind where they were supposed to be in comparison to the normal timeline and that scared him, it meant that because of him holding them back things were off course and he would have trouble predicting what was going to happen.

He knew according to canon, that after the gang originally escaped the SS Anne and James had done the dumbass thing and angered Magikarp into evolving, resulting in them getting sent flying and separated. The gang's Pokémon were meant to land on an island where Giovani had giant robot Pokémon as part of an amusement park. He knew now that was never going to happen. And while it might have been a small thing, he didn't know what it could butterfly into later on. Things were currently out of his control and all he could do was hope that they righted themselves with time.

Bringing his hands up and ran it through his hair before he shook his head, "Alright no more wallowing," he sighed, "So what if things are out of whack right now, I still have knowledge I can use to my advantage, a day either way won't really make a difference in a large way for most of it. But this all proves one thing, I need more information, while the library in Cerulean helped give me a general picture, the whole global Pokémon power rankings proves that I don't know everything, that has to change and fast" he said before getting his MacBook out of his bag along with his hard drives, turning down its volume along with opening up a word document he began to watch through the Pokémon episodes once again, this time making notes of not only various Pokémon he saw that he could add to his team, but also jotting down other things he'd have to find out about for sure in this world so he didn't say something in the future that wasn't common knowledge.

'I should have done this from the start,' Mason mentally berated himself, he couldn't afford to slip up, especially now that he released just how small he was.

-.-.-Time skip-.-.-

Morning came several hours later and Mason nodded to himself as he looked over his laptop screen at the lists he'd made up.

First came the various powers that were shown to be in this world. Aura and psychic abilities.

Both he had completely forgotten about until he had focused on things. He wasn't sure if he could learn either or if they were something he had to be born with. But the knowledge that psychic abilities existed gave him pause. Psychic meant telekinesis and telepathy, and telepathy also hinted towards mind reading which instantly had him worried and instantly add mind reading protection to his list listing dark and ghost Pokémon as possibilities as necessary additions to his team in the future, he did not want to risk crossing paths with a psychic and them reading his mind and finding out he wasn't originally from this world.

Below that he had also listed every regional gimmick he could recall.

Mega evolution

Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing

Z-moves

Those were just the ones that he could recall from whatever games had been out before he had been dropped into the Pokémon world. For all he knew there were others but he didn't know of them, and he'd have to research exactly how widespread and how well known each of them were before he began looking for others.

As for the Pokémon front, well he had several listed as possibilities starting with…

He was cut off from his inner thoughts when his Pokégear began to bleep, making him look over to it before checking the number and recognizing it.

'Wonder what Bill wants,' Mason thought before hitting accept on the video call.

"Hey Bill, what's up?" He asked as he sat up in his bed, his laptop on his lap.

"Oh thank Mew, you're still alive," was Bill's first response, making Mason frown wondering what had him so worried, before it clicked.

"Ah, I guess you've just heard about the SS Anne going down then?" Mason guessed.

"It's all over the news, league officials are in an uproar about it, the champion is on a warpath, those Rockets have never been so bold before as to attack a league sanctioned event before" Bill clarified, "I hadn't thought anything of it until I saw your Pokédex was last registered on board"

"Yeah sorry guess I should have called," Mason apologized, knowing that Bill had been appointed as his handler by Silph Co since he signed onto them through him like a number of others had and that he had to check in with him at least every two weeks to update him on things, all apart of his contract with Silph Co when he became a move researcher.

"It's fine it's fine, I'm just glad you're okay," Bill told him, "you are okay aren't you?"

"Yeah, just a little sore," Mason replied before he yawned, "and tired. It's been a long night," he said before he started to give Bill a full recounting of what had gone down on board the SS Anne.

Bill listened intently as Mason went over everything before sighing as he finished.

"It sounds like you got really lucky, and then some to survive all of that, it's a good thing the league assigned Jaun otherwise I'm not sure how you four would have gotten out of that situation" Bill commented.

"Yeah, it's definitely not a situation I want to be in again," Mason said with a frown.

Bill noticed the frown and spoke up, "what's got you in such a way? Most would be thanking their lucky stars that they survived something like that, yet you look like someone spilled your moomoo milk"

Mason frown deepened as he thought just what to say so he didn't expose himself, "I was blindsided, caught with my pants down," he stated before sighing, "both by team Rocket and then the whole Pokémon ranking thing, I'm normally the one a head of the curve in our little group but this whole thing has just…"

"I got ya, I got ya. You're normally the fastest on the draw but the first time you weren't was also when you find out you're playing with potato guns while others are packing the real heat" Bill nodded, "you're clamoring for a footing and trying to get back on your game… how can I help?"

Mason shook his head, "I'm not sure," he said finding all of his comparisons amusing but not letting it show, "I need information and a constant stream of it on various things, research notes as well as a way to have important news about the world at large constantly fed to me so I won't be caught off like this again"

Bill nodded, "sound like you need some assistants to help you out, researching and compiling things for you to review the important things, I've got several that do that for me and keep me informed of any new discoveries or developments that are pertinent to my research" he explained.

Mason blinked when he heard that, while the idea might not work completely for him as there was no way he could tell another person exactly what to look for, he still found it odd, "really, because I didn't see anyone else at your lab when we first met?"

Bill chuckled, "oh no not assistants like that," he said before tapping the screen, "say hello everyone"

Mason was confused as to why he was doing that before his eyes widened as several very recognizable Pokémon appeared within the screen all beeping and whooping at him.

"Are those Porygon?" Mason asked, amazed seeing them floating within the screen and all around, like they weren't physically there with him.

"Indeed, you do recall that they were created by Silph Co yes? We'll ever since it was discovered that they could enter technology Silph Co has been renting them out to companies and businesses, even the league uses them to streamline its operations and provide digital security from anyone trying to hack their systems" Bill explained.

Masons eyes widened, that, that could be game changing for him, though the fact that the Porygon wouldn't technically be his did worry him slightly as if he sent it back to Silph Co or they recalled it someone could find out from it what he had been looking up.

"Would it be possible to buy some Porygon from them instead of renting them?" Mason asked hopefully.

Bill frowned slightly, "not usually, but they might be willing, seeing as you're technically an employee of theirs now" he said before shrugging, "I could make some calls for you and see, how many were you thinking and any will they need to have any specific tasks?"

Mason nodded, "thanks," he mused before thinking, "three at most, one for researching, another to keep me apprised of world news and a third for security"

Bill nodded, "not an unreasonable amount, alright, I'll make some called and see if I can't get you them, but they won't be cheap in the slightest, especially the one trained for security purposes"

"That's fine," Mason waved him off, "money isn't a problem for me at the moment, they could charge a million for each of them and I'd still come out with over half my current funds available after"

Bill chuckled, "well they shouldn't charge that much but it's good to know you won't be strapped to pay" he said before nodding, "okay give me a few hours, I'll call you back around lunchtime if I'm successful, talk to you more then"

Mason nodded, "yeah, same to you, take care Bill" he said as the call ended and after putting the Pokégear down slumped back in his bed with a sigh.

Those Porygon would prove to be a major boon if he could get them but they also pointed out yet another major problem for him that he hadn't considered.

It had been a good thing he hadn't even tried to connect his MacBook up to the Pokémon internet network, if he had and someone took an interest in him and what he would have been looking up… yeah that would have been bad, especially if his collection of Pokémon episodes had gotten out as a result, future knowledge outside of his control would be bad.

A knock at his door pulled him from his thoughts, making him instantly close his MacBook and quickly put it away into his bag before answering it.

Opening the door Brock greeted him, "hey Mason, how are you feeling"

Mason sighed, "not much better, but I'll manage"

"Well it's time for breakfast, maybe getting some food in you will help," Brock suggested.

Mason nodded, "yeah now that you've mentioned it" he said before his stomach grumbled making him chuckle, "last time I ate anything was some stall food back on the SS Anne"

"Well that's no go, come on then, everybody else is already down in the canteen letting their Pokémon out for a morning meal" Brock said as he gestured down the hall.

Mason nodded, "yeah, sounds good to me" he said as he stepped out of his room, closing the door after him before following Brock down to the Pokémon Canteen.

-.-.-Time skip-.-.-

After joining the others in the canteen, Mason was quick to let out his team to join the others before he joined Brock in dishing out their pre-prepared Pokémon chow. It only took a couple of minutes as Brock was so well organized having the various pellets stored in various containers with the Pokémon typings labeled.

When he got to his newest party members, Tyrunt and Drillbur, Brock handed him two bowls, "There we go, a mixture of my rock types favorites alongside some of Dratini's preference for Tyrunt and a specialty ground type mix for Drilbur" Brock said as he took them and nodded his thanks before putting the bowls down in front of the two silent Pokémon.

"There you go, eat up you two~" Mason told them, smiling for encouragement.

Both Pokémon nodded to him before they began eating slowly, but froze after the first bite making both Mason and Brock frown, but before either of them could speak up and ask what was wrong both Drilbur and Tyrunt began to quickly dig into their food like they had tasted nirvana, showing the closest thing to emotion since they had first become his.

Mason blinked at the sight confused as to why they were acting like that, but then it clicked for him why and he clenched his fists at his side as yet another facet of Micheal's treatment of them revealed itself.

"Bastard," Mason said under his breath, "absolute bastard."

Brock gave a grunt of agreement and a nod, having heard his words and come to the same conclusion as he had, "some people just don't deserve to have anything to do with Pokémon." he said before shaking his head.

Mason took a deep breath before letting it out slowly as he turned away from them, letting his anger out as he did so, it was yet another thing he would make the bastard pay for, but given that he was currently out of reach he could only let it go for now.

With the Pokémon seen to both he and Brock went to the buffet table that was laid out with breakfast foods before filling a plate each and joining the others at their table to fill their stomachs.

"So, how long do we have to wait for the next ferry to the mainland?" Mason asked as he made up a bacon butty, piling it high before adding some red sauce to it.

"Not long, the next ferry is scheduled for tomorrow evening, so we have the whole day and tomorrow morning to just relax here," Brock answered.

"It's not long but I think we can make the most of it, especially given were Jaun left us off at," Misty said with a smile, when Mason looked at her in confusion she clarified, "We're in Porta Vista, it's a very popular holiday resort with a massive beach."

That struck a chord with Mason when he heard that name. Porta Vista, given how he had recently rewatched the anime just a few hours ago, he knew the significance of the resort city. Not only was it a part of one of the "Banned" episodes that he had actually never seen, but it was also the location that was attacked by the Tentacool army and the Giant Tentacruel. Which meant either today or tomorrow they would be in major trouble if nothing was done, because he really doubted that any of their Pokémon could stand up to a Tentacruel so big it could bring down high rise buildings with a single hit.

Pushing down his worry about the impending attack from the sea, Mason took a bite out of his bacon butty to help calm his nerves, only for Ash to speak up complaining.

"But there isn't even a gym here," he complained as he stared at his half eaten breakfast.

"Not everything revolves around gym battles Ash," Misty sighed at his complaining.

Mason himself was grateful that his mouth was full at the moment or he might have spoke up himself and commented on how Ash should use the time to train, but almost choked on his food when Ash responded with, "Guess I'll just have to train in the meantime then, we'll get to them when we get to them, no use in complaining now,"

Swallowing his food and looking at Ash for a moment like he'd grown a second head, Mason couldn't help but smile and chuckle softly to himself, it would seem that he'd finally gotten through to Ash back in Vermillion city and it had stuck.

Before he took a bite out of his butty again Mason glanced at Brock, "Say Brock, do you think you could give me more clarification on that thing we talked about back on the SS Anne?"

Brock arched an eyebrow at his question, "Oh you mean the Pokémon power scaling classifications?"

Hearing this Misty's eyes widened, "Brock" she said in a shocked tone before lowering her voice, "You know you're not supposed to bring that up, it's not something new trainers are meant to be concerned about in their first year or two of their journey"

"Not usually," Brock commented, "But Mason here got himself quite the prize on the SS Anne, some second generation Pokémon items, so I thought I'd fill him in to explain things to him."

Misty couldn't help but give a wide eyed look, "That's impressive, you don't normally see any of those kinds of things in the open, they're usually kept very hush hush considering how valuable they can be." she said before nodding in understanding as to why Brock had spoken about what he had now.

"Um what are you talking about?" Ash asked, not really sure what was going on.

Brock and Misty exchanged looks, before Misty sighed and gave Brock a nod, before Brock began to go into lecture mode and give Ash the same run down that Mason had gotten back on the SS Anne. Mason meanwhile ate away at his butty, and was finished by the time Brock wrapped things up.

By the end of it Ash was staring at Brock with wide eyes and mouth agape as he tried to come to terms with what he'd been told.

Finally getting his wits about him after a few more moments he closed his mouth and swallowed hard, "T-That's kinda…"

"Frightening, hard to take in, mind blowing?" Mason offered with a teasing tone as he sat back in his chair, a bottle of moo moo milk in his hand that he sipped from to wash down his breakfast, "My thoughts exactly."

Both Brock and Misty chuckled and giggled at Ash's response, who blushed before pouting at their teasing before getting back to eating with a muttering of "Jerks." though there was no heat to it.

Brock shook his head in amusement before looking at Mason, "So why are you asking about it again Mason, I thought I explained it pretty well the first time to you."

Mason nodded, "you did, but then something happened on the Anne during the raid that has me concerned," he said before he went on to explain to them about how he had encountered two Rocket grunts on his own back in Cerulean City and how they had came after him on the SS Anne with much more powerful Pokémon and how they hadn't even flinched at his Pokémons attacks, and that it was only thanks to Jaun's intervention that he had gotten out of that situation.

After hearing the tale both Misty and Brock were frowning, "Sounds like Advanced High tiers to me," Brock commented as Misty nodded.

"They'd have to be to shrug off attacks just like that," Misty added

Mason frowned, "Tiers?" he asked for clarification.

"Each classification of Pokémon also has sub tiers, Low, middle and High, to further classify their strength, going by what you described both of those Pokémon would need to be at least high tier in the advanced ranking scale if not higher to shrug off attacks from your Pokémon's levels like they did," Brock explained.

"That would put them just a rank below breaking through to the Ace rankings," Misty explained seeing Ash looking confused, "any lower and they would have shown at least some reaction to your attacks Mason."

Taking that on board Mason nodded, he had guessed it had to be something like that.

"It would also explain how they were so easily beaten by Jaun's Milotic," Brock commented, "Last I checked it was registered as a Middle tier Ace level Pokémon"

"High tier Ace actually," Misty corrected him, "he broke through two months ago."

Mason chuckled, because of course Misty would keep herself appraised of the strongest water type Pokémon out there. Shaking his head after a moment to clear his thoughts he spoke again.

"What I want to know now, is if either of you two know how can I get my Pokémon to that level, it can't just be regular training" he asked, hoping one or both of them could point him in the right direction.

"For most it's mostly time," Brock explained, "most Pokémon who's trainers stick to traveling and the gym challenges usually reach the first tier of the advanced ranking within two or three years, if they keep at it a year after that they hit the later stage and after that they usually get noticed and usually by their sixth tournament they get drafted as an Ace trainer and start the ace trainer circuit where things get much more competitive"

"I don't have years Brock," Mason told him, "what if those two come looking for me again, there has to be a way, any way I can speed things up anything more I could be doing that I'm not already doing"

Brock and Misty exchanged looks again, before Brock sighed, "Listen Mason, it's not really something we're meant to talk about with trainers at your current stage of your journey."

"Trainers at your stage of things aren't normally ready to handle the kind of power that Pokémon in the upper ranks can dish out," Misty explained, "you remember how I told you that Gyrados was my dads strongest Pokémon and that he was weakened after so many years of not training and not getting the same supplies that he did when my dad was still around?"

Mason frowned at this but nodded, before Misty continued.

"Well Gyrados used to be a high Ace class in strength, borderline on breaking through to the Elite rankings, but after years of lack of proper training and nutrition he's fallen back to just the top tier of the middle advanced rankings" she explained.

That immediately brought Mason up short, and his mind worked furiously to try and put that into context. He and Dratini had fought Gyarados and had won but how could he have when… it clicked and his stomach dropped.

"Y-You.. You threw the match, you let me win." Mason said after a second more as the realization sunk in.

Misty nodded and Brock spoke up.

"Winning isn't the only way that trainers can get a badge at a Gym Mason," Brock explained, "a good sixty percent of the time it comes down to a gym leader's discretion on whether or not a trainer will get their badge. We spend every day battling, we're much more experienced than regular trainers, its a gym leader's job to not only test a trainers strength but to make sure they are skilled enough to handle the responsibility that will come in the future as their Pokémon grow more powerful."

Mason swallowed and looked down at the table, his eyes shadowed by his hair as he fell silent.

-.-.-POV Change-.-.-

Both Misty and Brock watched Mason carefully as he looked down, both knowing that this was an important moment for Mason to come to terms with, and his answer would determine what would happen next.

All the while Ash frowned, watching and listening. He could tell how Mason was feeling because he would have felt the same, the battle with Misty's Gyrados had been an awesome match, Mason had given it his all in that fight, and now he found it that it wasn't really a win after all must have hurt.

All three could only hope that he didn't let this shatter his determination.

-.-.-Back to regular POV-.-.-

He didn't know why it hadn't clicked with him before now, it should have, he felt like such an idiot for not seeing it sooner. It should have made more sense to him sooner, as soon as Misty had told him about Gyarados being her fathers strongest, even years of not training and eating properly wouldn't lower a Pokémon strength all the way, they would still be powerhouses that he was currently nowhere near being capable of beating at his current strength. It was yet another wake up call, and yet another reason why he needed to get on that level and fast.

Looking back up Mason's eyes were narrowed as he looked right at Misty, "We will be battling again, when I get on the same level, and you won't be handing me a win next time, got it." he said with conviction.

This response got smiles from the trio, seeing the determination in Mason's eyes, he hadn't let this revelation break him and had just used it to fuel his determination to push on regardless.

Misty smiled back at him and nodded, "Definitely," she agreed, and she was looking forward to when that day came, before glancing at Brock and nodding.

Brock smiled as well before relaxing into his seat, as he nodded back, "Alright, well when it comes to advancing through the ranks quickly, you'll already be doing one of the first things with Dratini," he clarified as Mason looked at him with a frown, so he explained, "the second generation items, when he sleeps with one he'll passively absorb the energy within and make it his own, it will help him get stronger faster."

"The second generation items are really the reason why most trainers prefer to specialize in one type of Pokémon instead of building teams that have many typings," Misty explained, "it's already insanely expensive to try and focus on training one type of Pokémon, when you expand to multiple the cost only goes up"

Mason nodded at that, given how much Brock had told him the second generation dragon scales he had could go for at auction, he didn't doubt that for a moment, if he was going to have to buy multiple items of the same for each of his Pokémon then it was going to get really expensive, he could already feel the money flowing out of his wallet.

"And it gets even harder and more expensive when you take in the specialized training and diets that Pokémon of that level require to increase and maintain their strength," Brock added.

Hearing that Mason looked at Brock confused, he of course guessed there must be some intense training involved, but he was still confused about just what it meant and how a Pokémon's diet fell into it, wasn't he already feeding his Pokémon the best he could.

Seeing the look in Mason's eyes Brock smiled knowingly before explaining, "For the training you'll have to speak with and convince Ace trainers and Gyms that specialize in your Pokémons typing to help, most will likely only give you tips or hints on how to progress, that is unless you get sponsored by them so that they will take you under their wing"

Mason frowned at that, he knew what sponsorships meant, he'd read up about them, it was how trainers financed themselves on their journeys, but he'd also read up that Gyms had rather heavy stipulations for trainers that they sponsored, and asked if he knew what they would ask of him if he were to be sponsored by them.

"Most ask the same, mostly that you have to specialize in the same type as the gym itself." Brock clarified, making Mason's frown deepen.

"The cerulean gym used to take on six sponsored trainers every gym circuit when my dad ran things," Misty spoke up, "but we haven't had any in a few years, I could get in contact with my sisters and see if they can find out dads journals, given you've got three water types now we could maybe get you registered as being sponsored by us" she offered, "but aside from my dads notes I'm not sure we'll be much more help other than that, you saw the state of the gym, my sisters aren't exactly running the gym up to the same standards my dad did, we don't have the same resources we used to"

Mason perked up at that, before arching an eyebrow, "and what would your sister's stipulations be if they were to sponsor me?" he asked hoping he wouldn't have to specialize in only water Pokémon.

"Like I said, we can't offer you the same as we once offered our sponsored trainers," Misty stated, "so I think I could maybe talk my sisters down to allowing it if you were to field two water types in your team for official televised matches. Given that you've got three water types now, that should be simple enough right?"

Mason nodded slightly, it won't really be that much of a problem for him, Poliwhirl was already one of his go to Pokémon, and in the future he'd have both Blastoise and Gyarados as well, both would be able to pull some serious weight and would be real heavy hitters, especially if he could get Misty's direct help in training them. "Sounds doable to me."

Misty nodded, happy that he was on board with the idea. Brock chose this moment to continue his talk.

"As for the specialized diet, well," he said rubbing the back of his head, "be grateful you won as much money as you did because the ingredients for making the level of pokechow you're talking about can get very expensive, they usually only come up at special auctions that are invite only"

Curious Ash asked "What kind of ingredients?"

It was Misty who replied casually with, "bodies of strong Pokémon"

Ash blanched at that, "What?!"

Mason's eyes went wide as Brock confirmed her words with a nod.

"Mostly they are sold by the league and Rangers," Brock explained, "when a strong wild Pokémon has to be put down by them for various reasons, their remains are sold at auction to either pay for any damages they caused or other things"

"Some trainers even sell their own Pokémon when they die, either of old age or in an accident, though that seldom happens as most prefer to bury their Pokémon themselves privately" Misty explained, though she had a disgusted look when she did so.

"Though that doesn't really happen a lot," Brock added, "A Pokémon's body holds a lot of energy even after death, by eating them other Pokémon of the same type can increase their own, it's what primarily happens in the wild and how stronger than average Pokémon crop up from time to time"

Mason nodded as he processed that, it made sense, survival of the fittest and all that, the strong grow stronger by killing and devouring the weak eventually become food themselves when another stronger Pokémon comes along.

"So what? They just eat them all?" Mason asked, after a moment of thinking, not really seeing how some parts of a Pokémon could be eaten.

Brock shook his head, "It varies in a case by case basis, usually the body will be sold intact and it's up to the one buying it to get it rendered down to the meat and parts, the meat is then processed to make the food while the parts are either consumed or used like second generation items on their own"

"Would you know how to do that?" Mason asked, wondering if Brock could do all of this or if he would have to look for someone who could teach him to do so, though he was a little green at the thought of butchering a Pokémon like a butcher would a cow in his home world.

Brock shook his head, "the food part yes, but not the rendering, you'd have to take the body to a professional to do that, most cities with gyms have a professional like that or two in town, they usually charge ten percent of the body as their asking price, which they either sell on or keep for their own use, but it could be lower depending on the strength of the Pokémon being rendered"

"Have you done that before Brock?" Ash asked, looking a little green at the talk of Pokémon eating other Pokémon.

Brock shook his head, "Not personally myself, but my dad did on several occasions in my youth, he taught me how to make the chow from the meat, though mostly Rock Pokémon can eat the stony remains of other rock Pokémon as there's very little meat in most rock Pokémon beneath their exterior shells. I never did it myself mostly due to the fact I had to put all the money the gym earned into looking after my siblings, I wasn't an Ace trainer like my dad was, so I could never earn near the same amount of money he did"

Ash nodded as if that cleared things up while Mason suppressed a frown, it didn't really explain a lot to him, he wanted to ask why being an Ace trainer mattered but given Ash's reaction it was obvious, and he knew asking further could risk revealing his lack of knowledge on the matter and might risk revealing him not being from this world.

"Any tips on how to get into those Auctions then. If they're, invitation only?" Mason asked instead.

Misty piped up with a smile, "Oh that's easy, each gym is sent invites when auctions come up, if my sisters take you on as a sponsored trainer they can pass their invites to you and me and we can attend, I went to a couple with my dad, my sisters never really saw the need to go to them"

Mason grinned at that, liking the sound of being sponsored by a gym more and more, "I'm liking the sound of be sponsored more and more now, but just to be clear, would it be every time I'm in a televised match that I would have to field two water Pokémon, or would just one be enough?"

Misty frowned slightly before shaking her head, "I'd have to speak with my sisters to see what they'd think but if you really believed that you would need to change things up in order to win, I'm sure I should be able to talk my sisters into allowing it, as long as you speak to me or one of them beforehand so we can okay it."

Mason nodded more than happy if that would be the arrangement, "alright, when will you be able to call your sisters to see if this would be possible?" He asked.

"Well I wanted to see about maybe going out and doing some sun bathing since we have some down time, so I could call them when I come back for lunch. That sound good to you?" Misty offered.

Mason nodded, "sounds good, I'm actually thinking about heading out to do some shopping myself," he mused, "I had a call from Bill before Brock came to get me, if all goes well I should be getting myself a trio of Porygon to be my virtual assistants to help with my move researching, so I'm thinking about getting some new gear to make the most of them"

"Porygon?" Ash asked, perking up at the mention of a Pokémon he hadn't heard of before.

"I remember them, they were only just discovered last year, or rather created," Brock commented.

Mason shrugged, "well I don't know about that, but Bill recommend them to me and said he'd see about hooking me up with some to help" he said before downing the last of his milk and getting up from his seat, "what are you two planning on doing while I'm out shopping and Misty is sunning herself?"

"I'll probably go and check out the sights" Brock commented, but the way he turned his head made it clear he wasn't exactly being truthful, it didn't take a genius to know that by sights he really meant all the girls in bikinis.

Ash clueless to this finished his food and stood up, "I'm gonna see about getting some training in with my Pokémon and then see about finding some trainers to battle to keep our skills sharp"

Mason nodded, "sounds like a plan to me" he said with a grin, "alright so I'll catch you all back here when I get back from shopping" he said getting nods of agreement before waving bye as he went over to recall his team who had finished eating, letting Dratini crawl up and lay over his shoulders for the ride before he made his way out of the Pokémon center and into the sprawling city resort that was Porta Vista.

As he stepped out the doors he glanced to his left out to the ocean and sure enough, out at sea he could see the beginnings of a floating resort, the sight made him frown. And he knew he would have to get ahead of that cluster bomb before it went off, canon timeline be damned, he was not about to risk a showdown with a second Kaiju sized Pokémon especially given how the last one turned out. He did not have plot armor damn it.

And with that thought in mind, fished out his Pokégear from his pocket as he turned and began to make his way into the city proper.