Chapter Nineteen- Plans go overboard and we go on a cruise

He just had to go and taunt Murphy with his thoughts. He didn't know how but he knew that someone was laughing at him right now.

At that very moment, Mason was torn, he didn't know what he should do in response to the sight in front of him… facepalm, or vomit, at the sight of James dressed in drag as a high school girl, his hair dyed blond, with way too much fake tan and wearing a high school girl uniform, complete with skirt and all.

'At least he shaved his legs, thank Arceus' Mason inwardly thought as he tried his best to keep a straight face at the sight.

He knew that with these two showing up like this meant that his whole plan to avoid the SS Anna debacle had just gone out the window. Dam Murphy. But he wasn't just about to roll over and give up just yet.

"And just why are you giving us these?" Mason asked as he moved his hand a little closer to his belt, and his Pokéballs attached to it, "Seems awfully suspicious if you ask me."

"Um well you see we were going to go on the cruise with our boyfriends but something came up and we had to cancel last minute," Jessie in disguise explained in a hurry, "we don't want these super expensive tickets go to waste so when we saw you four we thought it would be a good idea."

"Seems awfully convenient if you ask me, and you two seem awfully familiar," Mason said, narrowing his eyes. But before he could say more Misty snatched the tickets from Jessie.

"Don't say things like that, this is a one in a lifetime chance," Misty said before holding out a ticket right in his face, "read it."

Mason blinked suddenly having a ticket thrust in his face and he took it giving Misty an annoyed look before doing as she said only for his eyes to widen as he read what was printed on the ticket, the SS Anne cruise was much more than he had been expecting.

According to the fine print on the ticket the cruise was for exclusively Pokémon trainers, it was set up as a joint venture, backed up by each of the leagues participating in the venture to unite the regions, meaning the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and the Unova leagues were all supporting the cruise as another way for Pokémon trainers from each of the regions to mingle.

According to the ticket there would be all sorts of events being held onboard, competitions, an open market, battling, debates, and more.

Mason couldn't help but whistle in awe as he read the ticket, "Damn, just how much does one of these tickets cost?" he couldn't help but ask out loud.

"Well more than any normal trainer can afford, these cruises are only held every six months, so you either have to be really good to be able to afford one, have great connections or you have to be loaded already," Misty explained.

Jessie chuckled nervously, "well our boyfriends do love to spoil us, so just take them and enjoy okay, toddles~" she said before she and James took off, like that wasn't suspicious.

Mason had to keep himself from face palming, it looked like they were going on the cruise after all. But looking at the ticket again a thought crossed his mind, as he started to go over the events of canon in his mind before slowly a small, miniscule, smirk came to his face.

'If these tickets come with that big of a price tag, then that means those who didn't have to work for the money to get them must have equally big pockets, which means that this cruise has just as many skilled trainers as it does rich suckers with no skill' Mason thought as though he heard opportunity knocking, 'What's that saying "a fool and his money are soon parted"... I think I can make this work'

-Scene Break-

It took them a little bit of time to find the SS Anne after that, despite how ridiculous it sounds, the port they were on had dozens of cruise liners, each one just as impressive as the next. But after a few minutes they were able to find the signs that directed them to the SS Anne.

After showing their tickets to the guards, they started up the long flight of stairs that lead to the main deck of the ship and the sight that greeted them did not disappoint. The front of the ship was packed with people. Stalls were set up along either side of the ship, selling various wears and items, people and Pokémon were gathered around tables dotted around the middle area and Mason could make out three or four smaller battle areas that were set up at the far front of the ship where battles were being held.

"Wow this is amazing," Misty said in awe as they looked around.

Mason nodded in agreement as he took in everything, he could see Pokémon from each of the different regions. It was incredible to see so many in one place, he didn't expect to see half of them so soon in his journey.

"It's like a Pokémon convention," Ash said as they began to walk through the crowd, "what do you guys want to do first?"

Mason smirked, "Well I don't know about you guys but I'm going to go and check out those battles, with all these different Pokémon from other regions here I don't want to miss out on the chance to battle against rare Pokémon from other regions" he stated, 'and fleece a lot of these rich suckers of their parents money' he thought to himself.

"I wanna do some shopping, some of these stalls look interesting," Misty said as she looked around.

Brock nodded, "I'm going to see if I can find any stalls that are selling rare items, you never know what some of these stalls could be selling"

Mason nodded, "I'll hit up the stalls after," he mused, 'once I've gotten more spending money from these guys' he thought, "what about you Ash?"

Ash was still looking around, "I'm going to look around and see if anything catches my eye, let's meet up inside later, okay"

They all nodded and split up as Mason made a beeline right to the battlefields, taking in the competition he had right now. It was all set up rather professionally, not all that surprising given who all were sponsoring this cruise.

There were three battlefields, a rocky one, a dirt one and a water one, they weren't full size but were still quite large, and each had a referee standing by wearing a striped shirt with the Pokémon league crest emblazoned on their left chest.

As he approached he noticed some signage posted near them and he stepped over to take a read at it. It was apparently an open contest event that anyone could participate in. There was no registration needed as it was open, and the goal was to achieve ten single battle victories in a row against other trainers to prove his skill, swapping Pokémon between battles was allowed but not during, and the prize was a random egg and rare item draw from the large supply of both that were donated to the cruise by various sponsors of the cruise.

Mason's mind instantly stalled as he read that last part "Various sponsors" that meant the leagues that were sponsoring the cruise, that meant gym leaders, elite four, ace trainers and more, eggs and items that they had donated as prizes. He could practically feel himself begin to salivate at the mere idea of what rare and powerful Pokémon that could hatch from some of those eggs, or what treasure he could get a hold of.

The only downside that Mason could see was that the challenge was limited to one set of prizes per person, so he couldn't take the challenge multiple times. But he didn't mind that as the fine print below stated that trainers could make their own wagers on matches, that was what the referees were there for, to make sure that all wagers and battles were kept.

"Alright, who's next!" a voice yelled breaking mason's line of thought as he looked over to the dirt battlefield to see a young teen at one side of the field, he had short black cropped hair dressed in a white dress shirt and black pants, and was looking very smug as his opponent called back their beaten Pokémon.

Mason could just make out that it had been a Zigzagoon before it was recalled, and the smug boy called back his Buizel.

Mason grinned, now was his chance to get started, "I'll take you on," he said as he approached the other trainer position, making the other teen grin.

The referee approached Mason and he held out his Pokédex to him to take back to the small station he was working at and after a moment nodded, "trainers state your wagers" he ordered.

Mason smirked, "A hundred thousand good for you?" he asked, feeling confident.

The teen snorted, "Sounds good to me," he nodded in agreement.

Seeing the agreement the referee nodded and after another moment to register the wager he stood back from the station and nodded, "trainers, call out your Pokémon"

The teen grinned as he took out one of his Pokéballs, "Lets go Lux '' he called as his ball opened and in a flash of red light a Luxio appeared on the battlefield.

Mason grinned as he looked at it before plucking his own ball from his belt, "Marowak, ready for battle!" he called as he threw out his own ball and appearing out of the light with a back flip Marowak landed on the ground with both feet and left hand on the ground with his right out by his side with his bone club held at the ready, both ends blazing with blue flame.

The sudden appearance of the Alolan Pokémon seemed to gather some attention as Mason heard muttered whisperings in the crowd watching but paid them no mind, it was the shocked look of his opponent that he was enjoying.

"Begin," the referee called.

With his opponent still shocked Mason took advantage, "Bone Rush!" he ordered as Marowak charged towards his opponent, his club spinning, that was apparently enough to snap his opponent out of his stupor.

"Lux, thunderbolt!" he ordered quickly.

Luxio responded immediately, firing off a powerful thunderbolt at the charging Marowak, only for it to be intercepted by his spinning club and seemed not to affect Marowak at all.

"What!" The teen said in shock, which Luxio matched and before they could react again Marowak too close, club extending and glowing as it did so, and effortlessly struck Luxio once, twice, three times, before the Pokémon could get back and out of his range.

"But how, the Alolan species loses its ground typing," the teen said confused.

Mason smirked, not saying anything, but very pleased with what he was seeing, 'looks like the lightning rod ability does give electrical immunity while charging up his special attack… that is so broken' he thought to himself, "keep it up, Shadow bone!"

Marowak gripped his club tighter as he once more closed the distance between himself and his opponent.

"Swift!" the teen called out in a hurry, clearly off balance at his first move not having any effect.

Luxio opened its mouth and shot out a spray of stars towards Marowak who simply ignored them as they just passed right through him as he shot towards his target as his club flared bright purple before it was bright crashing into Luxio's side sending it flying across the battlefield only barely managing to keep inside the smaller arena, it stood on shaky legs for a moment, still looking to fight, but as soon as the teen went to give another order, Luxio's eyes rolled up into the top of its skull and it collapsed.

Seeing his opponent down Marowak gave a nod before looking back to Mason who nodded back before smirking to the crowd, there was only one thing to say, "Next!"

-Time Skip-

Multiple battles later Mason was grinning to himself as he idly scratched at Dratini's head as the small dragon lay draped across his shoulders after just having won his last match, having won nine battles so far Mason was very happy, even more so as he checked his trainer account via his Pokédex to see that his bank account was looking very full.

With each battle Mason had been doubling up his wager, confident in his team's ability to win and keep his streak going, and these rich idiots had kept matching him every time, a hundred thousand had became two hundred, became four, then eight hundred thousand, became sixteen hundred thousand and soon after that the numbers became ridiculous, the rich brats were apparently confident enough or foolish enough to think that they could win and that the money didn't matter, and sense there was referees overseeing everything it was all legally done, so now Mason was practically giddy when he looked at his account that was sitting with well over fifty million in it, he felt a little light headed.

'I can't believe I almost missed out on this' Mason thought to himself, remembering how he had originally wanted to avoid the SS Anne altogether, but with the results showing now, he knew he would have been kicking himself.

Looking out as the ship was sailing Mason grinned, the SS Anne having left port while he was in the middle of battling. He knew that even if events still held true to canon in some way he'd manage to get through things, and it was going to be a hell of a lot smoother running now that he was a millionaire.

When that thought struck him, so did another one, 'maybe I should see about getting myself somewhere, a place of my own, somewhere where I can keep any Pokémon I catch that I don't use all the time, the Professor's Lab and reserve are good enough, but a place of my own would be just as good, hmmm, a thought for another time' he mused to himself before he was pulled from his thoughts as a hand clapped down on his back.

"Hey Mason," Brock said as he came up to him, "those were some pretty big wagers you were placing, and those battles were intense, you okay" he asked.

Mason chuckled as he closed his Pokédex, "Yeah I'm fine, just thinking is all" he mused as he put his Pokédex away in his pocket, "just one more win and then I think I'm gonna go spend some of my hard earned cash"

"Sounds good," Brock grinned, "Just don't go betting all of your money on your next battle, last thing you need is to lose it all"

Mason shook his head, "No need to worry, I don't plan to bet it all in my final match" he stated plainly.

"That's too bad, then how about we make a different wager" A rather snobbish high pitched voice said from across the battlefield as a young teen with bright blond shoulder length hair said as he took his position, he was wearing all white, a white silk vest shirt under a white blazer and white leather pants and shoes, all of which just screamed expensive, while to Mason it all screamed 'overcompensating virgin'

"What do you have in mind?" Mason asked him as he turned to face him with Dratini still on his shoulders and Brock behind him, looking as equally as unimpressed as Mason.

The Snob grinned, "I've been watching you battle, and some of your team have caught my eye," he explained, "you see I like to collect rare and valuable things, your Alolan Marowak and that Dratini on your shoulders," he stated, "both would suit my collection brilliantly"

Hearing that Mason's eyes widened, "you want me to wager my Pokémon on our match?" he asked before looking at Brock, "is that even allowed?"

Brock didn't look happy about it but nodded, "it is, mainly due to the fact that there are referees from the league here to over see things, it wouldn't be legal otherwise without a league representative to make sure everything was above board as well as that the transfer of ownership was carried out afterwards."

Mason frowned as he tried to think, he had read something about that back in Cerulean City, but it was so long ago now he couldn't remember it all, but that did sound familiar. But still Mason didn't like the idea of betting members of his team on the outcome of a battle, it didn't sit well with him and it wouldn't really sit well with the comradery that he was trying to build with his team.

"I'm sorry but…" Mason began to say before the blond prat interrupted him.

"Of course I'll be more than happy to sweeten the pot for you, if you want," the blond grinned as he plucked two ultra balls from the pocket of his jacket and tossed them out to reveal two Pokémon that Mason had never thought he'd see. A Tyrunt, and a Drilbur appeared standing across from the blond, but what caught his eye most of all were their colourings…. They were both shiny.

"A dragon for a dragon and a duel type for a duel type, I think that's a fair wager don't you" the Blond said with a grin as Mason stared at the two shiny Pokémon, "as for the monetary part of the wager, I'd be more than happy to match the same as your last match at say twenty five million, as well as put something of even more value on the line" he said as he reached into his inner jacket pocket to take out something that left Mason even more in awe than the two shiny Pokémon in front of him.

In the teens hand was a circular cut crystal, it's main body was clear save for the two swirling colours inside it, a mega stone.

Seeing the stone, instantly Mason's mind began to run rampant with ideas, if mega-stones were real then that meant so were mega evolutions, he'd never really paid them much attention, because even though they were cool mason had always felt a little cheated by them as he felt that some of the mega forms just didn't do the Pokémon justice, but now with the fact thrown in his face it opened up the idea that there was much more to the Pokémon world than he thought, so much more.

He wanted to accept the challenge, twenty five million, two shiny Pokémon and a mega stone. It was a huge prize for just a single battle, but he was wary of doing so.

"Can I ask just where you got that stone and those two Pokémon, their colourings are, unique to say the least?" Mason asked as he kept trying to think on things.

The teen snorted as he put the mega stone back into his inner jacket pocket and returned the two shiny Pokémon to their balls, "simple, my family runs one of the biggest mining companies in both the unova and Kalos regions, we have a deal with the leagues that any fossils we find are revived to be sent to sanctuaries that the leagues sets up, I just happened to spot this unique looking Tyrunt in amongst all the others and took it for myself, as for the Drilbur, well we have a lot of them for our main mining forces, spotting one unique from the others I just had to have it," he smirked, "the stone is just one of the many unique items that our workers pull up, similar stones such as this have went to auction for around two hundred million a piece, all bought by rare collectors of course."

Listening to him Mason began to get an idea about him, and other things, clearly he was spoiled like many of the other rich idiots he'd beaten, likely never travelled a day in his life, and probably didn't train his Pokémon. And the way he talked about the mega stone… which, going from the colours Mason had seen, was clearly Scizorite, he didn't know the true worth of what he was wagering, or at least he thought Mason didn't. 'Does the world even know about Mega evolution yet, or is it something that is yet to be openly revealed' mason thought before shaking his head, that was a line of thinking for another time.

While Mason believed he could easily beat this punk, the idea of wagering any of his team, even on a sure win battle, didn't sit well with him.

"I don't…" Mason said, going to decline the challenge, before his words were spoken over by Dratini giving a cry from his shoulder, making him pause to look at his partner, "Dratini?" he asked confused.

"Dra Dratini Dra!" the small dragon said as his eyes narrowed and gestured to the snobbish teen and then back to Mason and himself.

Mason arched an eyebrow as he tried to get the jist of what Dratini was saying, "you want me to accept,"

"Dra," Dratini said as he nodded his head, his eyes still narrowed, clearly not impressed by something.

Mason frowned but then Brock cleared his throat, "I don't think Dratini was impressed by how he was talking about his Pokémon" Brock said in a low voice, "Neither am I, if I'm honest, people like him, who treat Pokémon as if they're just something to collect, they treat them more like objects than living beings, it rubs me the wrong way."

Hearing that Mason recalled how the other teen had spoken, calling his Pokémon as it, any time he spoke about them, like they were items… yeah Mason could agree, it wasn't something a real trainer would do.

"Now that you mention it, I bet Marowak would feel the same way," Mason muttered, recalling his recently evolved Pokémon, given how his last trainer treated him, he knew Marowak would be spitting mad at this punk, and while using his Pokémon, his teammates, as betting chips on a match felt low, it would be more than worth it in order to wipe the smirk of this pricks face.

"Alright then, I accept your wager," Mason said after a moment more thought.

"Excellent, then how about we make this a double battle, since we're both wagering two Pokémon, it seems only fitting?" the teen grinned as he took out two other ultra balls from his pockets.

Hearing the request Mason didn't see any reason to deny it, hell most of his team had plenty of opportunity to battle already, so a double battle would only play in his favor to use two of his Pokémon that were the least chances to battle, that was when it hit him, this punk had been watching him battle, he'd said as much, he'd seen him battle already, and seen most of his team in battle, he was the one playing at a disadvantage as he didn't know what his opponent would be using.

'Crap' Mason thought before nodding, "Sounds good to me," he voiced as he tried to think on just what Pokémon to use in this battle, to cover any strategies the pompous teen had planned out, 'well if he's planned just how to counter what Pokémon of mine he's seen, I'll just have to use something new' he thought before plucking two Pokéballs from the back of his belt.

Seeing that everything was getting underway, Brock nodded before stepping back away from the arena while the attending Referee stepped forward and looked to both of them before nodding as he raised his hand, "Begin!"

(And cliffhanger…. Yeah sorry, been a while since I last post so I wanted to wrap this chapter up quickly to post it to give you all something to read, hope you enjoyed, the next chapter will be out as soon as I can get around to writing it)