Chapter five- Beat down and traveling

Mason lead Ash out to the front of the Pokémon centre where there was a large open space. Ash stopped several meters away from the front of the door and Mason continued forward, putting a fair bit of distance between them before he turned and gave Ash a hard glare showing he was taking this seriously, something that Ash tried to return.

Misty walked over to the side giving them a lot of space for their battle.

"Don't be too hard on him Mason," Misty called looking forward to seeing this battle.

That was when passers-by started to take notice and many stopped to watch the battle that was about to begin. The trainers that Mason had beaten three days before happened to be passing by as well and stopped to watch.

"Yo, you don't want to battle this guy, he'll mop the floor with you" one of them called to Ash.

"Just give up now, or you're gonna get creamed" another added making Ash clench his teeth in anger at how everyone was telling him he was going to lose.

Mason just smirked at the scene but knew that Ash wasn't going to back down, not with both his pride and free meals on the line.

"Shut up, I can beat him!" Was Ash's retort as he reached for his Pokéball from his belt.

The trainers just shrugged, "Oh well,", "We tried to warn him,", "His funeral" they muttered to themselves as Ash tossed his Pokéball into the air.

The Pokéball opened wide and Pidgeotto flew out taking to the air and doing a loop before coming around and flapping its wings, sending up a slight gust of wind that caught the bottom of Mason's coat causing it to flap as he stood there smirking.

"I see you got a good catch in the forest Ash. That Pidgeotto looks impressive," he said as he took his third Pokéball from his belt and sized it up, "but looks aren't important in Pokémon battles," he said before tossing his own ball into the air, "Spearow, ready for battle!" he called as the ball opened and Spearow soared out of the ball and took to the skies with much more speed than Pidgeotto.

"It doesn't matter we'll still win this. Pidgeotto is way stronger than your Spearow, show them Pidgeotto, use whirlwind!" Ash called out as Pidgeotto began to whip up a strong wind as it beat its wings hard towards Mason and Spearow.

Mason sighed, "Spearow dodge it, go straight up and get above Pidgeotto!" he commanded as Spearow obeyed and shot up with speed avoiding the winds like they weren't even there and shot high into the sky above Pidgeotto.

"What the!" Ash said eyes wide barely able to follow Spearows movements as he looked up.

"What speed," Misty commented from the sidelines in awe.

Mason chuckled, "Spearow, show them what a real flying-type move can do, Aerial ace, on repeat!" Mason called out the command knowing this would end it before it got started. It was a combo that they had been practising as one of his strategies.

While the rules of a Pokémon battle said that trainers have to take a turn about giving out commands there's nothing to say that the moves can't be repeated. Sure it came with its risks but Mason was confident that at this moment that Spearow was in the clear.

As soon as the command was given Spearows eyes glinted as it eyed Pidgeotto and took off into a nosedive and shot down with high speed as its energy gathered around it and it shot past the larger bird Pokémon. Its attack hitting its mark before Spearow turned sharply in midair and attacked again, and again and again, as the bombardment of attacks repeated over and over the repeating attacks hitting their mark each time. It was only after the fifth shot that Pidgeotto finally fainted before falling to the ground its eyes swirling as its wings layout by its side spread eagle.

"Pidgeotto!" Ash called unable to comprehend what he had just seen, Spearow had been so fast, Pidgeotto couldn't do anything against the smaller bird Pokémon.

"Unbelievable," Misty said her eyes wide as she watched from the sidelines.

Spearow flew to Mason after its attack finished, who had his arm stretched out for Spearow to land on as he brought the small bird Pokémon in to gently stroke its feathers, "Good job Spearow, very well done" he praised the small bird who seemed to preen under his praise.

Mason's eyes went to Ash as he returned Pidgeotto, "That is what intense speed and manoeuvring training can do Ash. From what I can tell, you caught that Pokémon already evolved. You have no idea of its capabilities or overall experience, that's the trouble with catching already evolved Pokémon. It may seem like a great idea, but if you don't learn what the Pokémon's capabilities are before you use it in battle, you won't be able to command it to the best of its abilities" Mason said as he brought up Spearows Pokéball and returned the small bird to its ball.

Ash was gritting his teeth in anger as he put Pidgeotto's ball away, "We'll show you, go Butterfree!" he called as he took another ball from his belt and tossed it into the air as it opened and the rather beautiful butterfly Pokémon came out.

Mason sighed as he returned Spearows Pokéball to his belt and took up the fourth ball, "Have it your way then, you'll just have to learn the hard way," he said before tossing the other ball out, "Scyther, ready for battle!"

As Scyther appeared from its ball with its blades at the ready, the gathered crowd began to gasp and mutter at the sight of the rare and strong looking Pokémon. Ash pointed his finger, "when did you get that!" Amazement and confusion in his voice as he looked in awe at the mantis Pokémon.

Mason smirked, "On my way out of the Viridian forest, when I was out looking for a bug Pokémon to add to my team, found him in a clearing, or rather he found me" Mason said with a grin, "he's actually one of the two I used in my battle at the Pewter gym, won his fight without even a scratch on him. You're about to see the difference between out training methods Ash."

Ash growled, "yeah we are, go Butterfree put that thing to sleep with Sleep Powder!" He ordered as Butterfree took off towards Scyther as the shimmering green dust began to fall from its wings.

"As if we'd allow such a simple and direct attack," Mason said with annoyance in his tone, "Scyther up into the air and avoid the powder!"

Scyther obeyed and in a second its wings were out as it flew up into the air shot behind Butterfree with speed.

"What!" Ash said in shock clearly not understanding how outclassed his Pokémon was.

"It's fast too," Misty said from the side of the area as she and the crowd watched on.

"Scyther, end this with False swipe!" Mason ordered and Scyther complied. Its bladed arms a blur as it moved with speed as it shot passed the delicate butterfly Pokémon and landed on the ground.

Butterfree stilled in the air as Scyther landed before soundlessly falling to the ground as it was greatly damaged from the attack, but regardless of that it slowly started to get up struggling to do so.

Ash smirked, "Ha, it's not that strong, Butterfree can still go on!" he said stupidly only to get glares from some of the trainers and other watching on, as Misty facepalmed.

"Ash you idiot, False swipe is a move that will never make a Pokémon faint in battle, Mason used it so as not to cause Butterfree any real damage!" Misty yelled at the clueless idiot.

"Wha… hu?" Ashed stated confused before looking to Mason as he recalled is Scyther.

"Of course I don't want to cause your Pokémon any real damage Ash, this isn't meant to hurt them," Mason stated coldly, "it's meant as a wake-up call for you, their trainer, to get your head out of your ass and start acting like a real trainer."

"I am a real trainer!" Ash responded angrily.

"Bullshit!" Mason snapped, "no you're not, your just a kid acting like a trainer. You claim that you want to be a Pokémon master but you don't want to put the work in. You claim to be the better of the two of us, but yet look at how I'm trouncing your sorry ass all through this battle. You need a reality check, and I'm going to be the one to give it to you, even if that means I have to thrash you in this match so bad that it hurts to watch" he stated as he reached to his belt and unclipped his first ball and sized it up, "Now come on, this is a match of three, let's finish this!"

With that Mason tossed his ball out between them with a call of, "Dratini, Ready for battle!" as the ball opened and his small dragon partner took the field with a cry of "Dratini!"

The crowd hummed and haad, at the sight of the rare dragon Pokémon as Ash clenched his fists in anger, "Fine then, Pikachu let's go!" he called as Pikchue ran out to face Dratini.

Mason hardened his gaze as he looked at the matchup, inside he was conflicted on how to proceed. He wanted to smack Ash around the head and make him grow up already to take things seriously, but obviously, the other teen was too thick-headed to get the message. He didn't want to go all out against Pikachu, he had enjoyed watching the small Pokémon and Ash travel as a kid but he knew he would have to if he wanted any chance at getting through to Ash.

"Pikachu, use thundershock!" Ash ordered seeing that Mason wasn't taking the first attack.

Mason remained silent and simply watched as Pikachu released the electrical attack on Dratini who didn't move at the attack hit him square on.

The crowd gasped and Ash grinned when he finally landed an attack but that grin faded as the attack stopped to reveal Dratini looking completely unharmed. "What?"

Mason scowled, "Do you honestly think that an attack of that strength is even going to phase my Dratini after the amount of training we've put in?" Mason stated firmly, "I haven't just been having my Pokémon train by themselves. Every hour in our training sessions I have them take a five-minute break before sparing with each other, swapping sparring partners every ten minutes to help them build up their battle experience. They train with each other and grow stronger evenly. Your Pikachu's attack in comparison to any of my Pokémons attacks is nothing" Mason stated coldly, "and you're about to see that strength right now, Dratini, use Twister, launch Pikachu straight up!"

Dratini nodded before once more letting out a cry as its eyes began to glow and the winds whipped around it and shot at Pikachu in full force catching the small yellow Pokémon and tossing it skyward on Dratini's command.

"Wha, Pikachu!" Ash said as he watched his partner get tossed into the air.

"And now we end this, Dragon Rage!" Mason commanded his tone as cold as steel.

Hearing that Ash's eyes widened, "Pikachu, try to counter it with thundershock!" he called up desperately.

Dratini's eyes stopped glowing as it gathered the energy in its mouth as the purple flames grew. Pikchue started charging electricity as it began falling and they both released their attacks at the same time, but the difference in power was clear for all to see.

The dragon rage shot skyward and met the electrical current and was barely phased as it continued to its target, both Ash and Pikachu's eyes were wide as it made contact. Pikachu let out a cry as the impact of the attack caused a small explosion in mid-air covering Pikachu in smoke. The crowd let out a gasp at the power of the attack before Pikachu broke through the cloud of smoke as it began to fall again.

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled as he ran forward to catch his partner in his arms before he hit the ground.

Misty worried also ran over to check on Pikachu and Ash as the small electrical Pokémon was knocked out in his arms.

Mason let out a sigh as he slowly walked forward and knelt by Dratini and gently stroked its head, "Sorry you had to be that rough with him buddy, but Ash needed this wake-up call. He needs to take being a trainer seriously if he'd going to get better"

Dratini looked up to Mason and gave a nod and a little "Dra" as he nudged his hand with his head.

Mason smirked, "thanks buddy," he said before he took out his Pokéball and returned his partner to it before standing up and walking over to Ash, Misty and Pikachu.

Ash was cradling Pikachu in his arms worry evident on his face, Misty was looking concerned also, and Mason couldn't help but feel bad. "Here," he said as he reached into one of the pockets on his pants and took out a super potion, "this should help," he said as he gently began applying the super potion to Pikachu.

It was only a couple of sprays but it was almost instantly that Pikachu began to recover and once the bottle was empty Pikachu was looking as good as new.

"Ah, Pikachu," Ash said as he hugged his partner.

Misty smiled at the scene before looking to Mason, "that was nice of you," she said with a warm smile.

Mason nodded, "Of course," he said before looking to Ash, "I meant what I said before, this battle wasn't out of malice, no matter how rough I was being with your Pokémon. It was meant as a wake-up call for you Ash. I did it to get my point across to you. We'll both be taking on the league challenge, that means we'll be battling against trainers with a lot more experience than us. We're talking hundreds if not thousands of battles under their belts, who specialise in their types of Pokémon. If you want any chance of winning those badges," 'Properly' Mason mentally added, "then you are going to have to train and work for them, you'll need to study, plan and train. You can't just wing it and hope for the best, otherwise you're just going to get your ass handed to you, a lot worse than what I just gave you, and your Pokémon will be the ones paying for your stupidity and laziness. They won't hold back like I just did." he stated.

Ash only just nodded as he looked down, his hat shading his eyes as he listened to Mason's words.

Misty looked between them and smiled a little sadly as she heard saw how Ash was taking this all in and gave him a nudge, "I hope you've learned a valuable lesson here Ash, Mason's only trying to help you."

After a moment Ash looked up and Mason could see the fire in his eyes as he nodded, "Yeah, thanks Mason, that was a good battle. I think I'm going to train more from now on to become as strong as you are, and plan before going into a battle, if I just go in without a plan my Pokémon will just get hurt."

Mason smirked and nodded, happy that Ash was at least starting to show some proper determination, though he wasn't sure how long that would last for, "good, and hopefully you learned one more thing from this…" he said with a grin as he slapped Ash on the shoulder, "not to make stupid bets, you now owe me and Misty our next three meals, I hope you can afford it~" he said cheerfully as Ash face planted on the ground and Misty giggled. Apparently, in the heat of the battle, Ash had forgotten about the bet they had made.

Time skip

It was the next day that both Mason and Ash stood next to each other smiling as they watched their Pokémon train together out in the training area the Pokémon centre had for trainers to use. Mason had taken some time the evening after their battle to come up with a training plan for Ash's Pokémon to work on along with another that they could work on alongside his own so they could all benefit.

Spearow and Pidgeotto were having mid-air combat practice dodging the others attacks in between doing laps to build their speed and stamina. Spearow had the upper hand but Pidgeotto wasn't slacking and was doing everything it could to keep up with the smaller bird as they flew high above, Spearows smaller form allowing it to turn faster as they followed a specific course that Mason had set out beforehand.

Butterfree was training with Poliwag and they were training just as Poliwag and Spearow had been training in the days before Mason had challenged the gym, with Butterfree dodging Poliwags water guns, though Mason could tell that Poliwag was holding back a lot given how slowly he was firing his attacks to give Butterfree a chance to dodge them.

Scyther, Dratini and Pikachu were all over at the target area each training to increase the power of their attacks, Dratini with Dragon rage, Pikachu with Thundershock and Scyther with Vacuum wave, the attacks pounding away at the heavy-duty sheet metal as they kept at it.

And that wasn't all Mason had planned, he had planned out an obstacle course for Pikachu to help with his speed, and a flying exercise sets for both Butterfree and Pidgeotto to help them both for when they needed to change it up.

Ash was grinning, "this is awesome, keep it up guys!" he called to his Pokémon, at first he had been reluctant to join Mason in his training but after he had explained everything out and how each exercise would help his Pokémon improve he had decided to go along with it, the crushing defeat he had suffered through the day before still fresh in his mind.

Mason smirked before he walked over to a bag that he had brought out and lifted a pair of something out of it, "hey Ash, think fast!" he called and tossed them to him.

Ash turned when his name was called and caught what was tossed at him before looking down confused at the pair of boxing gloves in his hands, "what are these.." he began to ask before he gave a yelp and ducked as Mason threw a right hook towards him, wearing a pair of gloves of his own.

"You didn't think it was only the Pokémon that trained during training, did you? If you want to command your Pokémons respect you have to show them that you are with them through everything, that includes training." Mason said as Ash hurried to get the gloves on, "when they are improving themselves, so are you" he added before throwing another punch that Ash dodged again as he fumbled with his gloves and Mason capitalised.

Time skip

Ash groaned as he held a bag of ice to his jaw as he gave Mason a death glare across the table from him as the other boy took a drink from a bottle of water.

Misty giggled, "you sure did a number on him," she said before smirking to Ash, "Bet you're glad that those gloves were padded, hm~" she teased only to get a death glare of her own in response.

Mason smirked as he stopped drinking, "it was a good first days training, Ash just needs to work on his guard a bit more and stop being so predictable with where he's dodging to" he smirked.

"You didn't have to hit so hard," Ash said with a wince from his jaw, his ears still ringing.

"No pain, no gain," Mason just commented back before taking another sip of water, "I expect you to keep this training up on your own, tomorrow after I leave."

"You're leaving already?" Misty asked a little disappointment seeping through in her tone.

Mason nodded, "Yeah, I've only been hanging around to wait on you two, I was going to leave yesterday but then I decided to stick around and help Ash get started. Now that that's done I need to be hitting the road. I'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning, bound for Cerulean city and a battle with The Three Sensational Sisters" he said knowing that would get Misty's attention.

And it did, Misty seemed to stiffen slightly at the mention of the sisters but Ash completely missed it and asked, "Who are they?"

Mason smirked as he relaxed back in his seat, "The Sensational Sisters are the gym leaders in Cerulean city, they are meant to be water Pokémon specialists, or at least that's what I've heard," he explained, "I don't know how one gym can have three gym leaders but I'll be looking forward to finding out when I battle them."

"Do you have to go so soon? We only just caught back up with you," Misty asked trying to ignore the talk about her sisters.

Mason shook his head, "I've spent enough time here, I need to be moving on. If I want to keep getting stronger I can't stay stagnant for too long" he said with a sigh, "but don't worry, I'll hang about Cerulean city for a few days and give you two a chance to catch up, but don't expect me to wait forever."

"I'll just have to train hard and beat this Brock quickly then won't I," Ash said with a grin only to wince again from the pain in his jaw.

Mason smirked, "Don't go challenging him too soon, you still need more training," he warned honestly, he knew Ash was nowhere near ready for beating Brock yet.

Misty smirked, "don't worry, I'll make sure he sticks to his training, he won't slack off with me around"

Mason sighed and nodded, "good, but make sure to pace yourself, Ash. Remember it's not a race, and you never know, I could get swept at the next gym and need to take another week to train before I can beat the sisters. So take as long as you need, don't go putting your Pokémon in a tight spot just because you tried to rush things."

Ash just nodded and Mason got up from the table, "well I'm going to go take a shower now, I'll catch you two around" he said before standing up and leaving them to their business as he went to his room.

Time skip

It was early the next morning as Mason left his room, his tech bag on his back and a medium-sized gym bag slung over his right shoulder, as Dratini lay across his left nestled against his neck, a position the small dragon had begun taking over the past couple of days whenever it was out of its Pokéball and not doing anything else. Mason didn't see anything wrong with it and so had decided to let Dratini stay out for when he was travelling on his own to give him company while on the road.

As he approached the front door of the Pokémon centre ready to take his leave he paused as he heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Misty coming out of the corridor where the bedrooms were.

"I just came to see you off," Misty said as she stood with one of the centres dressing gowns pulled closed over what looked to be a loose t-shirt and pyjama shorts that showed off her lovely legs that Mason had to keep himself from looking at, "chances are it will be a while before we catch up, Ash needs a lot of work."

Mason smirked, "True, but with you making sure that he's putting some effort into things it may go a lot quicker," he said with a smile, "I'll be sure to tell your sisters that you said hello"

That made Misty tense and swallow, "hm, w-what do you mean, s-sisters?" she asked as she looked a little worried.

Mason gave her a friendly smile, "I'm not as slow as Ash is Misty, I figured it out. There aren't many trainers around these parts that specialise in just one type of Pokémon" he explained, "Plus I've heard all about the four Waterflower sisters. I'm assuming that's why you left your hometown to journey alone? To get out of your older sisters shadows?"

Misty seemed to frown before she sighed, "Yes, growing up, everyone always talked about how beautiful my sisters were, how skilled they were and how talented they were. I could never compete with them. I was the youngest, always thought of last, if at all. I would never be as beautiful as them or ever match up to them in skill." she said her voice shaking a little as she talked about her sisters.

"That's not true," Mason said back in retort his voice hard with certainty. He had never liked how Misty had always been treated like a side act in comparison to her air-head sisters, in truth he wanted to spend as short a time in Cerulean city as possible, he detested bimbos like them. It was true they may have been good looking but that was only skin deep as far as he was concerned. "I may have never met your sisters, but I have met you. I don't care how beautiful or skilled they may be, as far as I'm concerned you're ten times better in every way that they could ever be."

Misty looked at Mason in shock before turning her head away in an attempt to hide a blush that spread across her cheeks at how he spoke about her, "Y-You think so?"

Mason nodded with a smile, "I know so. Don't doubt yourself misty, you're better than that." he said getting a cry of "Dra!" from Dratini on his shoulder in agreement.

Misty nodded still blushing, "thanks Mason, that… that means a lot" she said not daring to look at him, never having anyone talk about her like that before.

Mason smirked, "I'm only speaking the truth," he said before turning, "anyway, I'll see you and Ash in Cerulean City. I expect to see big improvements in him by the time you two catch up" he said as the doors opened.

Misty smirked as she looked at him walk away, "Don't worry, I'll whip that slacker into shape." she said as a fire burned in her eyes.

Mason chuckled as he continued walking, "I pity him already!" he called back as the doors of the centre closed.

Misty stood there looking at the doors for a few moments more, her smile still on her lips as Mason's words still rung in her ears. He had such confidence in her, such faith. She wouldn't let him down. Turning she walked back toward the bedrooms as the smile she had settled into something more soft and content as she went back to get a couple more hours of sleep before beginning Ash's torture…. Training session.

Scene break

After leaving the centre it took Mason another four hours before he finally found the next stop on his journey. MT Moon. It wasn't as big as Mason had expected it to be from the anime. Then again he didn't know what to expect.

The mountain was nothing more than an oversized hill, definitely not mountain material. Sure it was covered in trees and had steep ridges that would make it next to impossible to cross over without the right kind of training and gear, but it wasn't all that big.

He had found the entrance to the cave rather easily enough, with the path leading up to it through the trees it wasn't that difficult to spot after finally reaching the area.

As he approached the cave entrance he sighed with relief. He wasn't seeing any Pokémon in distress or any signs of lights inside the cave system. He knew that in the anime by the time that Ash, Brock and Misty came around this part of their journey that Team Rocket had found the cave and had begun their whole operation to find the rare and valuable moonstones inside the cave, stringing lights up all over the inside of the cave and causing all sorts of trouble for the Pokémon inside.

Mason had to sigh grateful that he wouldn't have to deal with those idiots himself, and even more grateful that it appeared that he wouldn't be meeting that weirdo scientist Seymour, the representation of him in the anime annoyed him so he was pretty sure he didn't want to meet his real-life counterpart.

Looking into the cave once more he saw that it was pretty dark inside, it was a good thing he wasn't really afraid of the dark or of confined spaces, otherwise, this was going to be annoying.

Kneeling he slung his second bag off his shoulder and took out a flashlight, grateful that he had gotten it ahead of time before coming here and flicked it on as he began to make his way into and through the cave system of MT Moon.

As Mason walked he began to think to himself, wondering if he had done the right thing back at the centre by beating Ash like that. Had he been right to do so. Yes, the idiot needed his head pulled out of his ass and given a dose of reality. But Mason was more concerned about what the possible repercussions of that battle could be. He'd only just thought about it the last evening before he went to sleep.

If Ash really did take his advice and train properly, while that may have been good for him right then it could cause problems later, if he was able to beat Brock on his first try then Brock wouldn't be likely to join up with Ash on his journey, and if that was the case then Ash was really screwed, Brock was the brains of that trio. Perverted perhaps. But still.

Mason let out a sigh, he could worry about that later. If the universe wanted Brock to travel with Ash and later to achieve his dreams then it would still happen some way or another. He couldn't be worrying about that now.

'Right now I have more important things to worry about.' Mason thought to himself as he stopped as he aimed his light ahead showing the path that split into three directions. "Like how the hell to navigate this cave."

Time skip

It was another fourteen hours later that Mason finally came stumbling out of the other side of MT Moon and fell to his knees as he held his hands up towards the sun, "Freedom!!!!" he cried overdramatically.

Never again will he decide to critique a place before going into it, that place was hell. Every tunnel looked the same, he suspected he had even backtracked several times. He was just grateful that his flashlight didn't die on him otherwise he would have been screwed.

After basking in the sun for five minutes Mason slowly got to his feet with a relieved sigh as he looked up at the sun again that he could see was slowly beginning to set and rubbed the back of his head, "that took a lot longer than I thought it would," he said to Dratini as she small dragon nodded in agreement.

"Come on we need to get a move on, we might still be able to make it to the Cerulean Pokémon centre before nightfall," he said as he began to walk down the path from the cave that connected to a road lower down, just because he had a sleeping bag and a tent now didn't mean he wanted to use them unless he had to.

As he reached the road he noticed a sign that said "Cerulean City" with an arrow pointing down the road and below it a familiar piece of graffiti that Mason remembered from the anime.

"Garry was here. Ash is a loser." Mason recited aloud reading out the written words and smirked before shaking his head.

'Garry hit the nail on the head with that comment' Mason thought to himself as he shook his head. If Ash remained true to the canon, then odds are good that he'd have given up on his training, challenged Brock, and lost already. And was likely with Flint right now at that old water mill outside of the city giving Pikachu a power boost so that he could hurt Onyx. Which Mason still called bullshit on.

It still really pissed him off that Ash got half of his Gym badges in the anime just handed to him for moral lessons or other bullshit reasons. But then again the show was for kids back then.

Looking back to the sign Mason smirked to himself before reaching into one of his pockets and took out a marker of his own, 'may at least leave Ash a message of my own' he thought to himself as he wrote, "So was Mason, hurry up Ashly, don't be a slowpoke now!"

He grinned to himself as he put the marker away, "that should give Ash the proper motivation to get moving, don't ya think?"

Dratini gave a small cry of "Dra!" from his shoulder in agreement as they began to walk toward the city in the distance.

As they did so, Mason's smile turned to a frown as he looked at the city in the distance, one particular thought on his mind. Misty's sisters.

'If they are anything like they are in the anime, they're going to be complete airheads, more concerned with their looks and their little water show of theirs rather than the actual battling portion of their gym and actually just be giving their gyms badges away to any trainer with a Pokémon who makes a challenge' Mason thought with a scowl. He didn't like that not one bit.

How they were even allowed to keep their gym licence was beyond him, he was pretty sure that if the league got wind of their actions then they'd be fired as gym leaders for a stunt like that, second gym or not.

As they walked Mason tried to think of what he could do. If they were sorry excuses for gym leaders like he expected then he'd have to hold off on actually challenging the gym, at least until Misty got there so he could say he had earned his badge. Just taking a badge didn't sit right with him, not in the slightest.

'Looks like we'll have a lot more time to train than I thought' Mason thought to himself. He was going to have to think of some way to keep himself occupied as well as training while he was waiting for Ash…

At that thought he paused in his steps before grinning, he knew just how to pass the time. With any luck, he should only have to wait a couple of days, if his guess about Ash dumping training was right. Though that would also mean that he'd end up travelling with him and Misty after beating the Cerulean gym, at least for a while.

He didn't have a problem with that, it wouldn't take long for him to break off on his own again, he knew Ash would have trouble down the line while he could just move off on his own again.

With his plan now in mind Mason picked up his pace and started to head towards the city with renewed vigour, he had a phone call to make.