Chapter eleven- Going back to school

It was later the next evening that Mason found himself growing more and more irritated, a growing trend in these past few days. They had been keeping to the canon pace of things as far as Mason could tell, he knew they had to, but in the time that they had Mason had begun Ash's proper education, starting with the very basics but the more they went on the more Mason wanted to strangle Ash.

"For the fifth time Ash, an electrical attack will not work if you use them on Rock or ground type Pokémon, they are immune" Mason said rubbing his brow as they walked through the thick fog, "water or grass moves should be your go-to for dealing with both, or ice against ground, or fighting, ground or steel type moves against rock types"

"But then how do you explain Pikachu's attack beating Brock's Geodude and hurting his Onix?" Ash protested confused.

Mason facepalmed with a groan, "your bullshit luck that's how", 'and anime bullshit for the sake of the story that is just utter rubbish' he mentally griped as they continued.

As bad as Ash was on the book side of things Mason had to give him credit, Ash was showing promise in the actual training aspect of things. The other day when they had stopped for dinner after leaving AJ's gym and Mason went to train his Pokémon, Ash was right there with him and so were his Pokémon and Mason could see that each of them were eager to train and get stronger, and as a result they ended up having a very productive training session with their two teams pairing off to train.

Pidgeotto and Butterfree with Golbat and Spearow, Poliwhirl with Scyther and Pikachu with Dratini as per usual and they made good progress in toughening up Ash's team, while Mason got to work in toughening up Ash.

Right now however they were trying to find their way through this thick mist that had descended on them in the early hours of the morning. Mason knew what it meant and what was coming but remained silent about such things, not wanting to draw attention to himself for knowing future events.

"This mist is starting to drive me mad," Misty complained, "we've been walking around for hours now and it feels like we're not going anywhere"

Mason sighed, "yeah you're right. We can barely see ten feet in front of us," he agreed, and it was true the mist was really thick, he could only just make out the treeline to their right that they had been keeping close to for the past while, it wasn't really that productive a way to travel.

"I suggest we all take a break," Brock voiced, "perhaps wait a while until this mist settles down," he said as he took his bag off his shoulder and began to pull various things out of it, a table, a table cloth, two chairs, plates and various other things.

Mason just arched an eyebrow at the scene while Misty and Ash sweatdropped, now that Mason knew about the capsule technology it really wasn't that strange, but still, seeing all of that come out of one backpack was rather comical.

"And I have just the thing, for us to drink while we wait," Brock added as he took out a brown bag from his backpack, "I bought this herbal tea back in Cerulean city," he said as he opened it up to let the scent out.

Misty's eyes lit up as she smelled the herbs, "oh I know that blend, my dad used to drink it all the time, it's delicious"

Brock smile, "excellent, now I've got a supply of water here somewhere, we just need wood for the fire, Ash would you mind going out and seeing if you could gather up some firewood, Mason could you help me set up a stand for us to use"

Mason nodded, "sure thing Brock," he said as Ash slumped with a groan until Mason gave him a pat on the back, "hurry back Ash, when you get back we can see about another training session while we wait for the mist to clear." he said to encourage him, though internally knowing that Ash wouldn't be getting firewood any time soon.

Ash seemed to perk up and that and nodded, "okay" he said before he and Pikachu took off into the forest to look for firewood.

Mason shook his head when Ash was out of sight and went to help Brock while Misty sat at the table to wait.

It only took Mason and Brock about five minutes to set up a small fire pit with some rocks and Brocks metal stand for the tea kettle in place, all they would need was the firewood, and so sat down to wait for Ash to come back.

It was after another five minutes that Mason gave a sigh, "I think that idiot has gone and got himself lost in the mist"

Misty sighed, "I think so too, and I was really looking forward to having some tea," she said in disappointment.

Brock nodded and began to pack everything away, "give me a hand to pack up and then we'll go look for him," he said getting a nod from both Mason and Misty as they packed up camp right quick before heading off in the direction that Ash went.

It only took them a couple of minutes to find Ash, in the middle of an argument with several younger teens all dressed in some kind of school uniform.

"...we have to maintain our standards," a kid with green hair argued back at Ash.

"Oh yeah, well if this school of yours is turning out students like you then I'd think the standards would be pretty low already" Ash snapped back

"That's right Ash you tell em" Misty called Ash on as she and Mason walked up to them with Brock training behind.

"So these are the infamous Pokémon tech students?" Mason said as he eyed the group of blazer wearing teens before scoffing, "I'm not impressed. Pokémon tech? What a joke."

"Pokémon tech?" Ash asked confused, as Misty walked up to him and began to explain.

The five other teens glared at Mason for his comment, "what was that!" one with spiky red hair growled.

"I said Pokémon tech is a joke, I mean seriously, name me one student who graduated from your so-called school who's even made it past a single Pokémon of the Elite Four, never mind took on the regional champion" Mason rolled his eyes.

"And what would you know" A green-haired boy spat, "you're just a pathetic nobody, you probably don't even know the first thing about being a trainer"

Mason smirked, "I bet I'd know more than the five of you combined because unlike the five of you I don't limit myself to what's taught in the classroom and believe everything I'm told"

"Oh yeah, prove it?" a blue-haired boy said cockily.

Masons shrugged, "alright, let's try something simple then, how many Pokémon types are there?" he asked plainly.

The blue-haired boy snorted while a boy with long black hair answered, "there are fifteen types, everyone knows that" he said getting nods from the four others in agreement.

Ash chuckled while both Misty and Brock just looked amused, Mason down right smirked, all that seemed to piss the five boys off.

"What's so funny?" the black-haired boy growled.

"Your answer," Mason replied, knowing that Ash, Misty and Brock were already in the know about this after he had taken time, the other day, to educate Ash on the Pokémon types during their training session, needless to say, Misty and Brock had been impressed with his advanced knowledge given that most new trainers wouldn't be aware of such things, "there are actually, eighteen types. Two new types were discovered in Johto, Steel and Dark, while in the Kalos region Fairy types were discovered, and many Pokémon are being reclassified with more than one typing because of this" he explained, having actually verified this information back in his trip to the cerulean library, the trip had been very informative for him.

The five boys looked like they had just been gut-punched by the statement, half looking pissed at being lectured and the other half annoyed at the fact that they were wrong.

"Pokémon Tech has a set curriculum based off of this regions knowledge of Pokémon at the time, but that is the problem. Pokémon are not just confined to this region and knowledge does not remain stagnant, and if you learn everything in a classroom you can't verify it all for yourself. To do that you have to get out there and travel," Mason stated, "the school won't give a shit about you, it doesn't care, it's already got the money from your parents for your education. And if you fail after graduating its not their fault, it's yours for not trying hard enough."

Four of the boys looked to be in thought about Mason's words, but the redhead boy just clicked his teeth and turned away, "whatever, I'm not going to listen to a wannabee like you, come on guys" he said as he started walking back into the mist, the others following him.

Mason just shook his head, "idiots"

The student left behind looked to Mason frowning, "did you really mean that?" he asked looking crestfallen.

Mason looked to him and sighed, "I did, Pokémon technical is a joke of an institution, while it may have a lot of fancy toys, it doesn't teach you anything different than what you can learn on your own while you travel, it's a waste of money that would be better spent on books for self study and supplies for traveling" he stated from his own point of view, "you'd be far better off withdrawing, getting your tuition back and travelling to learn what you need to know to be a good trainer, and not be cooped up in some classroom."

The young boy looked down and went into thought over mason's words, while Ash seemed to be getting angry.

"Oh those guys are really getting on my nerves, who do they think they are, where is this place anyway" Ash began to say only to be cut off as the sound of a bell rang out and the mist began to clear away.

"Today's special class: fog battle techniques, is now ended. Tomorrow's class will be: snow competition secrets" a female robotic voice said over a loudspeaker as the mist faded away to reveal the large triple story building with white walls and a red roof, and the fact that they were currently standing in the courtyard of the school grounds.

Mason snorted, "like I said, a lot of fancy toys," he said rolling his eyes.

The young boy sighed, "oh well, I guess they'll make me into a snowman again just like the last time"

"Do they treat you like that all the time?" Ash asked shocked, "why do you put up with it?"

"My friends are just trying to help me," the boy defended, "I've learned a lot with them helping me"

"With friends like those. Who needs enemies" Brock said with a frown.

"It's better than the alternative," the boy said and pointed over to a middle-aged looking man with glasses in a uniform huddled under a tree reading a book, "that guy's an upperclassman, but he's in the beginner class with me because the advanced classes are so hard people get held back all the time, no one wants to leave without getting a diploma, and because he's so old no one bothers to help him, as my friends help me"

"And what do the teachers think about that kind of help?" Misty asked not sounding impressed.

"They don't even know about it, or if they do they pretend not to" the kid replied with a sigh.

Mason just rolled his eyes, "as I said, the school doesn't care about you, it just wants your money, if it did care about its students then every student would be graduating in a set time frame with each getting taught all they need to know, even if it is just the basics, it would give you a base to grow your knowledge out from as you travel"

"I for one think this whole thing is stupid, who's in charge of this helping anyway," Ash said with a growl.

The kid reached into his blazer and took out a photo and showed them, Mason just glanced to see the picture of a brunet girl who looked to be about the same age as them. "This is her picture?"

Almost immediately both Ash and Brock began to look at the picture with an unhealthy interest, Misty, on the other hand, wasn't impressed.

"Hey if she's the reason that you're treated so badly why are you carrying her picture around?" Misty snapped.

The kid rubbed the back of his head, "I may hate how she treats us but I like how she looks" he admitted

"Unlike some other girls who treat you bad and look even…" Ash began to say absentmindedly only to be silenced when Misty drove her fist into the top of his head and slammed his face into the ground.

"Shut your mouth," Misty snapped before she began to stomp off.

Mason arched an eyebrow, "Misty? Where are you going?" he asked having an idea.

"Where do you think? To find this little witch so I can straighten her out!" Misty yelled back as she stomped towards the front doors muttering dark thoughts under her breath.

Scene break

With no other options left to them, the four boys followed Misty into the school, and after five minutes of aimlessly walking around looking for the girl, Misty finally gave in to let Joe guide them to where Giselle normally works by herself.

It took them a couple more minutes to get to the room which was rather big, filled with a load of machines with screens on them.

"Giselle always practices here by herself" Joe explained as he leads them into the room, "even if you beat her in a fight it won't matter to her, here at the tech, it's your skill as a trainer that counts more than winning in any one battle."

"I don't care, I'm still going to beat her" Misty declared angrily, "I trained at the cerulean city gym, I don't care how good she claims to be"

"Oh, Cerulean city, water Pokémon," Joe said as he moved to one of the machines and booted it up.

"How do you know?" Misty asked scowling.

"I always beat em on the simulator here," Joe said as he played through the simulated battle with his Weepinbell beating the Starmie.

"What is this!" Misty said sounding offended, "a simulation is one thing, but this is real life!" she said as she took out Starmies Pokéball, "lets battle"

Joe gave her a grin, "you'll be sorry" he said as he got up.

Mason just shook his head, "no kid, you're the one who's going to be sorry.

Time skip

And Mason was right he was sorry, Joe's Weepinbell didn't even get out one attack before it was hit by an overpowered water gun from Starmie that knocked it out in one go, giving Misty the win in an instant.

Ash looked to Mason, "hey Mason, didn't you say that grass was the best choice to go against water Pokémon, along with electric before?" he asked, "so why did Joe lose?"

Mason snorted, "typings are important, but a Pokémons training is also important, Misty's Starmie has far more battle experience than Joe's Weepinbell, and as a result is far stronger," he stated only to stop when the sound of a single applause was heard.

"Well I must say," came a female voice making them all look to see Giselle walk over to them followed by the five boys from before, "it appears that you do actually know some key things about being a Pokémon trainer," she said looking at mason before glancing to Joe, "things that others still apparently need to learn, you're an embarrassment to the whole school"

Both Ash and Brock began to fawn over Giselle's beauty, but Mason just looked at her dispassionately. As she began her little speech.

"I'm the top student in the beginning class of the most exclusive prep school in the…" Giselle began only to be cut off by mason.

"If by most exclusive you mean most expensive, you'd probably be right," Mason stated, "also being the top student in a beginners class really isn't something to be boasting about, considering you look about a year older than all your fellow classmates," he pointed out.

Giselle looked like she had just been slapped, before she glared at Mason, "how dare you, I just held myself back because I want to help my classmates be the very best that they can be" she defended herself.

"Translation, you moved on to the next class and found it to hard so held yourself back just so that you could keep boasting that you were the top of your class instead of having to work" Mason said bursting her bubble, deciding to give her a taste of her own medicine just as she had given Joe in the anime.

"Shut your mouth!" Giselle snapped back at him, "you don't know anything about me!"

"I know a pretender when I see one, and you have it written all over that pretty little face of yours, with an attitude like yours I'm reminded of the saying that some peoples' beauty is only skin deep" Mason countered back

"Pretender am I," Giselle said as she brushed her hair back, "I'll show you, I challenge you to a��" she began to say again only for Misty to but in this time.

"Hold it!" Misty yelled, "if anyone is battling you I am, is anyone is going to put you in your place it will be me" she declared before Mason had a chance to stop her.

Giselle just snorted, "Fine then," she said as she plucked her Pokéball from the stand, "this won't take long, go Graveller!" she called tossing the Pokéball as the large bolder Pokémon appeared on the field.

Mason frowned, he knew what was going to happen, but he couldn't exactly stop things now, if he did Misty would get angry at him for getting in her way, and Giselle would just boast about things, even more, he had to admit the anime had it right in this particular instance, 'never get yourself into the middle of a catfight'

Graveller grinned before it jumped at Starmie with speed, Starmie dodged quick enough and countered with a water gun only for Graveller to attack again completely unphased by the water and collided with Starmie, mid-air and send it flying out through a window and into the pool.

Misty looked at the broken window in shock before she quickly took off to check on her Pokémon, everyone following her out.

Scene break

The group ran out to the pool and Misty quickly fished Starmie out of the water looking very worried about the damaged gem on Starmies front as she held her Pokémon close out of worry.

"Well that didn't take long," Giselle said as she brushed her hair back, "if you still want to battle we can continue here, you'll even have the advantage with the water from the pool," she stated.

Misty looked at Giselle with a hateful glare, "and I suppose you'll use another Pokémon with a weakness against water," she said angrily

"Pokémon are only as strong as the trainers who raise them. A Pokémon who's weaker but better trained can still win, it depends on the trainer" Giselle boasted, "as a Gym leader you should know that" she added snobbily.

Mason frowned, "and I'm sure that you trained your Pokémon all by yourself for long hard hours on end, and didn't use any of Daddy's money to buy your Pokémon from other trainers who have already trained them to be that strong" he stated voicing his suspicions, he had always found it suspicious how this girl had such strong Pokémon.

Giselle scoffed, "so what if I did, a trainer uses every advantage they have to win. So what if I didn't train all my Pokémon by myself, they're still mine, and I still won"

"That isn't what being a trainer is about," Mason said firmly, "while it's true that Pokémon types may not play a key point in Pokémon battles when one side is clearly stronger than the other. What is important it the training that the Pokémon go through. How can you call yourself a trainer if you rely on other people to train your Pokémon!"

"What matters is winning, and that's all there is to it, go ahead prove me wrong" Giselle challenged him.

Before Mason could respond Ash stepped up, "gladly" he said getting a look of confusion from Giselle.

"And just who are you?" Giselle asked.

Mason at this point ignored the conversation and instead went to help Misty with Starmie as he took his bag off his back and began to fish out his medical supplies.

"Here lay Starmie down here," Mason told her as he put his jacket down for some padding for Starmie.

Misty nodded and did so, "thanks," she said as she watched silently as Mason began to treat her Pokémon feeling completely trodden on how she had been beaten so easily like that.

"Hey," Mason said getting her attention as he applied the potions, "don't let that one battle get to you. You don't have any idea how skilled Gravellers last trainer was, so you had no idea how strong it would be, don't blame yourself for Starmie losing. I'm sure if you were using Gyradose out there in that battle you would have won no problem"

Misty gave a small smile at Mason's words and brought her hand up to her eye to wipe away a small tear she felt coming, "t-thanks Mason" she said softly and turned away to hide a slight blush she felt forming from his words, 'he has such faith in me' she thought to herself and couldn't help the warm feeling in her chest.

Mason smiled as he caught the bush but didn't say anything as he went back to treating Starmie. It only took a few minutes until the Mysterious star Pokémon to be back up on its pointed legs, the gem on its front completely healed.

Just in time for the silence to be broken by a shrill cry of, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!"

Both Misty and Mason looked over to see Giselle throwing a fit, with her Cubone on the ground in front of her crying and Ash celebrating with Pikachu over their win.

"It's not possible I refuse to believe that an electric Pokémon can beat my ground Pokémon, there's no way!" Giselle declared angrily.

"Even though it just happened?" Ash said clearly not happy with her attitude.

"Shut…!" Giselle began to yell at Ash only to stop when Cubone came over to her still crying and hugged her legs for comfort, and she glared down at the small Pokémon, "get off of me!" she snapped and kicked him away, getting shocked looks from the other students and the gang all watching.

"Don't touch me! How can you call yourself my Pokémon when you can't even win when you have a clear type advantage, and after daddy spent so much money on your training!" Giselle snapped angrily.

Cubone burst out into fresh tears from being refused comfort and began sobbing even louder.

"Be quiet!" Giselle snapped, "that's it, I don't need a weak Pokémon like you who can't even win a battle with a type advantage," she said before throwing Cubone's Pokéball at the ground, breaking it in half, before she stomped away in a fit.

Everyone was speechless as they watched Giselle go. Mason swallowed hard, 'that certainly didn't happen in the anime, did I cause this to happen?' he thought to himself as he started to feel bad for Cubone, had his words actually caused this to happen, and knew he had to do something.

Slowly he approached Cubone and knelt down to the small Lonely Pokémon, "hey Cubone?" he began to say only for Cubone to instantly latch onto him crying.

Mason frowned and let out a sigh as he placed his hand on Cubone's back to comfort the small Pokémon, "its okay" he told it, "you don't have to be sad" he spoke softly as he took out the potion in his pocket, there was just enough left from treating Starmie to help Cubone, and he gently began to apply it to the small injuries that Cubone had from battling Pikachu.

It took only a few seconds for the wounds to heal and for Cubone's cries to turn to sniffles as the pain ebbed away.

"There we go all better," Mason smiled, "you're pretty strong you know, I caught some parts of your battle with Pikachu," he spoke with a smile as the small Pokémon looked up to him, "I don't care what that girl says about you, you're strong, why don't you come with me, my team would love to have you."

"Cubone?" the small Pokémon said and Mason smiled getting the idea from his tone.

"Yes really, so what do you say?" Mason replied, only for Cubone to start crying and hugging him again, Mason smiled and rubbed its back, "I'll take that as a yes"

Time skip

After successfully capturing Cubone in a Pokéball, Mason and the others went to leave the campus, wanting to put this whole incident behind them and continue their journey. But much to their shock they were met at the gates by Joe along with the five other teens that had been bullying him before. Each of them in travelling clothing.

'Guess I really did change a lot just by being here' Mason thought to himself before speaking up, "what's all this then?"

The leader of the group with red hair rubbed the back of his head, "listen, I want to apologize about what I said before, we've thought a lot about what you said earlier," he began to explain.

"We used to really look up to Giselle, we all thought she was great until today," the teen with blue hair said.

"We never thought that she'd do something like that, she always talked about how she was for the future of Pokemon and Pokemon trainers, now we can see that was all a load of lies" the green-haired kid added.

"We've all talked and decided to do what you suggested before Mason," Joe spoke up, "this school is great and all but we all really just want to get out there and become real trainers, and not fake ones like Giselle."

Misty smiled, "that's great, I'm glad that you've all seen what a total bitch she is," she said glad that they weren't blinded by her pretty face and could see her for what she was now.

The redhead nodded, "yes, we've all called our folks and told them of our decision, we're all going to be travelling together to help support one another, but not in the same way as we did here, that was all Giselle's idea"

Mason nodded, "well I'm glad to see that I had a positive influence on you then," he said as he held his hand out to the redhead trainer, "I'll be looking forward to facing each of you when the indigo league comes around"

The redhead nodded and shook Mason's hand, "same here, call me Jasper"