Chapter four- Cracking rock with strategy

It was several days after his arrival in Pewter city that Mason finally stood outside the Pewter city gym, it was an intimidating sight. The large stone structure with the iron frame a very impressive sight, it actually looked like the exterior of the building had been carved from solid stone.

It had been a sight he had been looking forward to seeing finally, since he had arrived in the city a week ago and went out shopping for his new gear. Speaking of which he was now wearing.

He had stuck with his black cargo pants and replaced his trainers with some comfortable, padded, steel-toed hiking boots. He had also bought a number of vest shirts in different colours and was now wearing a plain white one underneath his new steel grey jacket, it went down to his hips and had a flared collar to protect his neck from the win, and to complete his look he had even gotten a pair of fingerless black gloves for his hands.

All in all, he thought he was looking very much like a badass. Though the expenses that day had left him somewhat lacking in the money department. Shaving off two-thirds of the money that he had, but he had gotten everything he needed out of the list, so it was money well spent.

He hadn't seen any stickers for his Pokéballs, and none of the shops sold any of the other kinds of Pokéballs but that didn't surprise him. He suspected that he'd have to go to a much larger city to get any of those.

Mason looked up at the large structure one last time before he started forward towards the doors confident that he and his team had put in enough training to win their upcoming battle. They had worked hard for the past week straight, training twice a day, for eight hours total each day to really gain some results.

And now it was time to put their training to the test. He put his hands on the doors and pushed them open as he walked into the dark interior of the gym.

Even though it was dark inside, Mason was able to squint his eyes slightly and make out the white markings on the floor, for where the challenging trainer was meant to stand. Mason knew the layout of the gyms main floor and knew that just ahead was where the rock battlefield was brought out. He was not about to pull an Ash and look like a complete idiot having to run back to avoid the sliding field, no thank you.

Mason smirked as he took his position before he called out in a professional voice, "My name is Mason Storm. I'm a trainer from Pallet town, and I am here to challenge the Pewter city gym leader, Brock, for the Boulder badge."

Almost instantly the lights at the far end of the room flickered on and Mason could see Brock sitting cross-legged on a small platform. He could see that he looked exactly like he did in the anime. Tanned skin and slightly narrow eyes, with a head of spiky black hair. An orange shirt and brown cargo pants with a green vest jacket over the top. He looked to be about eighteen, so a couple of years older than most new trainers he would face here.

"I am Brock of the pewter city gym, and I accept your challenge," he said as he jumped down from the platform, "Is this your first gym battle?"

Mason nodded his head, "It is, but I've already taken the time to read the rules and regulations to expect for them. What's the match set up here?"

Brock gave a smirk and nodded before he snapped his fingers and the walls at the side of the room opened up as more lights flickered on and the rock field began to come together.

"We'll each use two Pokémon, and only you are permitted to substitute Pokémon in this match." Brock explained as the field came together, "Its a pleasant surprise to face a challenger who actually reads up on the matches beforehand. It lets me know you're here to take this battle seriously." he said with a smirk, "Most trainers barge in here and make their challenges like some idiot not knowing the full extent of what to expect."

Mason sighed, "Yeah I know someone just like that, brash and doesn't think with his head half the time. He'll be in for a hard wake up call on of these days" Mason said as the field finished forming, "shall we get started then?" he asked as he grinned.

Brock nodded with a grin of his own and tossed his Pokéball out into the rocky battlefield, "go Geodude!"

Mason smirked and pulled his Pokédex out to do his reading on it as he flipped it open and pointed the camera towards it.

"Geodude, the Rock Pokémon. Geodude has incredibly high defensive power, making it virtually resistant to any physical attacks."

Mason nodded as he put his Pokédex away and took the fourth ball from his belt, "a strong start, let's see if I can match it" he said as he sized up his Pokéball and tossed it out, "Scyther, ready for battle!"

Scyther appeared out of its ball its blades crossed in front of it before slashing the air letting out a cry of "Scyther!" apparently ready for a fight.

Brock smirked from his side of the field in approval, "your Scyther looks very well trained Mason, but you do realise you're at a type disadvantage from the start of this, and that's going to cost you. Geodude, use Tackle!"

Mason smirked, "that's what you think, Scyther, use Agility to dodge!"

As Geodude went in for its attack, Scyther blurred and disappeared before it reappeared again across the battlefield. Geodude went to attack again, only for the same thing to happen as Scyther kept ahead of it as they danced around the rocky battlefield. Scythers advanced speed appearing to be too much for Geodude to keep up with.

"Keep it up Geodude, try to pin it down!" Brock commanded getting just as frustrated with all the misses.

'Perfect, I was right rock Pokémon are heavy and thus slow moving, Scyther has the advantage here' Mason thought to himself as he smirked, "Keep dodging Scyther, get ahead of it and use Swords Dance!" he commanded.

Scyther disappeared once again as Geodude went for an attack and appeared far away this time as it crossed its blades and slashed the air, as it cried out a powerful cry.

Brock's eyes widened a fraction, "Geodude, stop attacking and use Defence Curl, they're going to attack!"

Mason smirked as he let the move go unchallenged, he knew it would do next to no good. The training he'd put Scyther through over the past five days had been hard but extremely worth it, its defences may have been lacking but his speed and power were as high as he could get them in that time. Now with Swords Dance used once, there was no chance.

"False Swipe!" Mason ordered after watching the Defence Curl finish.

Scyther nodded and blurred once again before appearing behind Geodude its bladed arms by its side as it took five steps away from the small rock Pokémon.

Geodude behind it shook for a moment before it fell to the ground with a thud on Scyther's fifth step barely still conscious as it tried to pick itself up off the ground failing to do so after the powerful attack.

Brock's eyes widened again and he held out his Pokéball, "Geodude return!" he called as he returned Geodude in a stream of red light.

"Why did you do that? Having your Pokémon use an attack that doesn't ever make the enemy Pokémon faint?" Brock asked watching Mason carefully

"Because I didn't want to cause your Pokémon any more pain than necessary. This is a gym battle, not war" Mason replied. While it was true that he could have easily ordered scyther to attack with a more powerful attack he didn't see the need. He knew Brocks personality wouldn't allow his Pokémon to continue a battle if there was no hope and would only serve to injure his Pokémon further, he truly cared for his Pokémon.

Brock nodded in respect, "I can see you are a good trainer, Mason. Caring towards Pokémon other than your own, you'll go far" he said as he took his next Pokéball off his belt, "but you first have to get by my next Pokémon, and that will be no easy task. Go Onix!" he called as he tossed his next Pokéball high and it opened mid-air and the large rock snake took to the battlefield with an intimidating roar.

Mason looked up at the large rock snake with a smirk before he held out his Pokéball, "Scyther return!" he said as he called Scyther back in a red stream of light.

Brock arched an eyebrow at the actions, "why are you switching out, Scyther didn't take any damage in that last match?"

Mason nodded, "he didn't but I don't want to leave my partner out of this match, you're sending out your best so I'm doing the same," he said as he pulled the first Pokéball from his belt and called out "Dratini, ready for battle!"

Brock's eyes actually widened fully at the sight of the small dragon Pokémon appearing on the battlefield, "A Dratini? That's a rather rare Pokémon you have there, and I can tell it's just as well trained as your Scyther. You train your Pokémon well"

Mason smirked, "thanks, but you may not be complimenting me when you lose." he said teasingly.

Brocks chuckled, "we'll see about that, Onix, don't give it a chance, use Rock Throw"

"Yraaaaaa!" Onix bellowed as it used its large body to rip rocks from the battlefield and threw them at the smaller Pokémon.

"Dratini, show them your Twister!" Mason ordered confidently.

Dratini instantly threw back its head as the energy began to pour out of it, showing the extent of its past five days training. The winds picked up instantly. A wind the strength of a small hurricane swirled around Dratini as the large rocks came at it, only to be caught by the wind and tossed in other directions. One even shattering and being torn to pieces on impact.

Brock looked on amazed at the power the small dragon was showing while Mason smirked. Dratini had been pushing himself harder and harder every day to get stronger, and it was clearly showing.

"Dratini, end this with Dragon Rage!" Mason called out as the winds began to die down.

Dratini wasted no time. As the winds began to settle it already had its energy gathered in its mouth and with a loud cry let out a large purple ball of flames and sent it hurtling at high speed towards the large rock snake.

Onix couldn't get out of the way in time and took the fireball right to the chin and was sent back before crashing to the ground from the impact of the attack, causing a small dust cloud to rise up from the landing.

Mason smirked, there had been a reason that he had wanted Dratini to learn that move before he took on this gym. In the games, Dragon rage caused a set amount of damage, which would negate Onix's insanely high defence. One hit should have been more than enough to end this, and if not, Dratini was more than capable to dish out more and he still had Scyther fresh if he needed him. Mason was more than confident in his battle strategy and the training he had put his team through to prepare them for this.

But it was clear the second the dust settled that more wasn't needed, as Onix lay still with its eyes closed, the battle was over.

Regaining his bearings from his shock, Brock raised his Pokéball and returned his Pokémon to its ball with a sigh before smirking as he looked over at Mason and began to clap. As he did so the field began to retract clearing a path for him to walk over to him.

"Very well done," Brock praised as he approached, "I definitely didn't expect that, you've trained your Pokémon very well indeed, and it's clear that they respond to you well." he said as he reached him and took out a badge from the top pocket of his vest jacket, "you've more than earned this," he said presenting Mason with the Boulder Badge.

Mason took it with a smile and nodded his head to Brock, "thank you, that was a great battle."

Brock smiled, "I should be the one saying that to you, I haven't had a battle that was that one-sided in a long time."

"Thanks, we've been training all week in preparation for it. I figured you'd be tough with all the trainers you have to battle. You didn't disappoint" Mason smirked.

"Thanks, but I really wasn't that great, especially considering we never even landed a hit, you really utilised your Pokémon's moves well to keep them from getting hurt" Brock commented.

Mason nodded, "yeah, it's a trick that I picked up from watching some other trainers," he commented, and it was true. He'd been watching a lot of battles from later in the anime series and there was so much more to it all than what could be done in the video games, attacking moves could be used as shields or deflection moves if used right, Dratinis' Twister was just one of them. They just had to be strong enough to defect stronger attacks. And this was just the start of the strategies that Mason had spent the last number of weeks working on.

"Well it definitely worked. I was right before you will definitely go far, good luck on your journey Mason," Brock said as he held out his hand.

Mason took it with a nod before he turned and walked out of the gym a smile on his face. 'One down, seven to go' he thought to himself as he left.

Scene break

As Mason entered the Pewter city Pokémon centre again he reached into the inner pocket of his coat and took out the metallic Badge case that he had purchased while he was out the first day and placed the Boulder badge inside it. He had thought about pinning them to the inside of his jacket like Ash had done in the first season of the anime but had decided against it, it looked a little unprofessional in his opinion.

Putting the case away he walked over to the phones, remembering the promise that he had made the Professor to call him after he had won his first badge and intended to keep that promise.

It was only a couple of seconds before the professors' face was on the screen after he had sat down.

"Hello my lad, how are things going? Have you challenged the Pewter gym yet?" Oak asked with a smile.

"I just got back from the battle Professor," Mason said as he took out the badge case and opened it to show the badge inside, "I won without any trouble at all."

"Splendid, I knew you'd do well. I take it that means your training has been progressing well" Oak asked with a large smile.

Mason nodded as he slipped the badge case away again, "it is. Dratini finally managed to get Dragon Rage down, on the fourth day of training. Scyther was able to learn Razor wind on the same day. Poliwags Water gun strength is getting stronger by the day, it won't be long until it learns Hydro pump, I hope. And Spearow has learned a new move that we're calling Aerial ace."

Oaks eyes seemed to bulge when he heard the last part, "A new move you say, can you describe it to me?" he asked, sounding like a kid at Christmas.

Mason nodded, "it's a high-speed aerial attack that has yet to miss. Spearow moves at high speed and gatherers energy around him that seems to let him cut through the air much faster and with force as he attacks, sort of like an airborne quick attack" he explained, it would seem that his hypothesis was correct. Later generation moves weren't known about in the earlier series, so if he was going to use them he'd have to pass them off as new moves that he'd developed in training.

Oak seemed to get more excited the more he heard, "that sounds incredible my lad, a new move like that is something that rarely comes along. This just proves that there is still so much about Pokémon that we don't know, absolutely astounding."

Mason smirked, "I'm sure that we'll discover more as time goes on, the more we train the more we'll find out"

"Indeed my lad." Oak nodded sagely, "now tell me, has Ash and Misty, managed to catch up with you yet, it's been a week now?"

Mason shook his head, "not yet Professor, but I'll be giving it three more days before I move on to the next city since I challenge the gym early I don't want to waste too much time before I head to Cerulean city next."

Oak nodded, "yes that is understandable, you can't let others slow you down when you are ready to move on," he said in agreement, "it's commendable that you've already waited as long as you have. Sacrificing your valuable travelling time as you are."

Mason nodded before glancing over to the door as it opened as a group of trainers came in and he smirked, "it won't be much of a sacrifice Professor, the beds in the centre are comfortable, and these next three days will provide me time to challenge the local trainers to battles to see about gaining some money back after buying my supplies. Plus I have some more planning to do, so it won't go to waste." he smirked.

Oak laughed, "I see, never one to waste an opportunity, a good mindset to have. Well, I won't keep you from your endeavours, I'll talk to you again soon my lad."

Mason nodded, "Thanks Professor, I'll keep you updated on any new moves that I and my team discover during training"

"Much appreciated my lad, thank you," Oak said before they ended the call.

Hanging up the receiver Mason stood up and eyed the backs of the local trainers, as they gathered in the lounge area, like a predator eyeing up his prey. Oh yes, he wasn't about to let any opportunity go to waste.

Time Skip

It was later in the evening as Mason relaxed in his room in the Pokémon centre. It had been a very productive day. There had been eight battles, all rather short, but nonetheless profitable.

He'd made his challenge to all of them openly. Betting half of his remaining cash in each battle as long as they could match his wager. What had proceeded after that, was an all-out beat down. As one after another, each of them had lost to his team as he proceeded to demolish them.

They hadn't even proven to be slightly challenging, and now his money problems were sorted as he had over five thousand Pokédollars in cash to keep him in the green for when he travelled to Cerulean city.

He was even considering buying himself a bike in the next city if they weren't too expensive but something was telling him that they were. But right now he had other things on his mind.

Glancing over he looked at Spearows Pokéball on the bedside table, next to the rest of his Pokéballs, he frowned. He hadn't exactly thought about it much. But he had realised during his training just some of the things he might have changed from the canon series by catching that Spearow. It was meant to play a part later in the series, and now that would change.

Mason didn't exactly care about changing the canon, he was content to just roll with it and explore the world that he had been dropped in and to have fun. To live the dream that many probably had when they watched the series.

But now he was wondering what other things he would end up changing from canon by just his presence here. Hell just the different ages of the characters could change things. He knew all about the butterfly effect and how just the smallest of changes could cause huge dramatic changes down the line, and now he was wondering if he should actively play a role in changing things or if he should just roll with the punches and continue on as he was doing. He truthfully didn't know the answer to that. At first he had wanted to try to keep things the same, like when he hadn't taken one of the starters as his own, but now if he was honest with himself, he didn't really care all that much.

So what if he changed some small things here and there. If it caused a mess later on then he'd just have to clean it up. If something was meant to happen then it would still happen, the world would sort itself out.

Though he did have is mind set on trying to mature Ash some. Honestly, he had finished rewatching the first season during his stay at the watchers' hut and he found himself wanting to scream.

Out of all the badges in the first region, Ash had only properly earned about half of them, the rest he had gotten out of luck or sympathy. It was no wonder his Charizard didn't listen to him when it mattered the most in the semi-finals of the Pokémon league. It was meant to be his ace in the whole, his strongest Pokémon but with only four, legitimate, badges.

There was no way it would listen to him, especially after he considered how it had treated it right after evolving. Ash was a clueless nitwit and Mason planned to give him a hard lesson to get him on track and make him realise that if he wanted to be a proper trainer he'd have to put in some work.

He was half tempted to go ahead of Ash when that happened and save Charmander himself and get him on his team. But he nixed that idea immediately, Charizard played too much of an integral part of Ash's team in the early generations and later on, taking it for himself could really mess things up.

Plus he wanted Ash as his rival, after all, an actual proper challenge would have been nice, taking Charizard from him would completely toss that out the window. True he could go after Gary, and probably still would, but he knew Gary flaked out to become a Professor like his grandfather later down the line. And there was no way he was going to wait until he got to Sinnoh for Paul to become his rival, that was ten whole seasons away, screw that shit.

Mason smirked, having Ash as his rival would be interesting later on when he actually started to take things seriously. But for now, he was getting ahead of himself. He still had seven more gym badges here in Kanto to collect and then there would be the whole Indigo league to face. So those would be his goals for the time being.

One. Make Ash take his job as a trainer seriously so that he would have some good competition in the future.

Two. collect all next seven Kanto gym badges and enter the indigo league.

Three. Mop the floor with all the competition and top the league.

And while doing all that he would enjoy his travels, build and train his team into badasses, and generally enjoying life as a trainer on the road. Rince, lather, repeat for the next number of leagues…. Yep, that sounded like a good plan to him.

Time Skip

It was three days later when Mason was just coming out of his room and walking to the main entrance hall of the Pokémon centre. He had finished his training for the morning and was planning to spend the next couple hours relaxing.

He knew that Ash and Misty were more than lightly going to arrive later that day. So it was a bit of a shock when he walked out to find them both standing just inside the door in front of the poster that was advertising the Indigo Pokémon league.

"Can you do that Ash?" Mason heard Misty teasing him, doubting he had what it took.

"Of course I can, you just watch!" Ash rebuffed annoyed at her tone.

Mason arched an eyebrow, apparently, ten days in the forest hadn't done their attitudes much good, they were both still arguing like children.

"Ha-ha-ha" a dry chuckle from a man walking over to the pair and Mason glanced to the man he instantly knew was Flint, Brocks dead beat of a father who failed as a trainer and didn't have the balls to come home and admit it, "Don't tell me you actually plan on facing Brock? Funny joke kid."

Mason smirked as he walked over, "yeah real funny, he could beat him alright, maybe in a few years" he said announcing himself, "what took you so long, I've been waiting here ten days for you two to find your way out of that forest?"

"Mason?" Misty said shocked as she looked at him not recognising him at first, "is that you?" she asked looking at him in his new clothes.

Mason smirked, "Yep, finally got a chance to do some clothes shopping, you like?"

"I'll say, you really clean up good." Misty complimented him before Ash butted in.

"And just what is that supposed to mean "a few years" if he's so tough why don't you face him then." Ash challenged him his fists clenched by his side.

Mason just smirked as he fished his badge case out of his inside pocket, "I did," he said as he opened it, showing the single badge inside it, "I challenged him and won three days ago, I've been waiting around for you two to catch up before I moved on," he explained.

Flint seemed to gawk seeing the badge, "Impressive, not many trainers who are from around these parts can beat Brock, you must be a pretty good trainer," he commented.

Mason nodded as he slipped his badge case away, "I am," he said before looking over to Ash, "I trained, and strategized, for seven days straight until I was confident enough that my team could handle a gym battle."

"Oh wow, you must have been training pretty hard if you were able to challenge and win inside a week" Misty praised clearly impressed.

Mason nodded, "twice a day, for four hours each session, my team has improved a lot in a week" he smirked, "I played to my Pokémons strengths, improving their best qualities and learned some new moves that won it for us" he said before looking to Ash, "if you plan to face Brock I suggest that you train. As you are now… he'll mop the floor with you without even trying." he said before turning to walk towards the door, hoping that that would be enough to light a fire under Ash's butt to get him to take things seriously.

Time Skip

When Mason returned from his little stroll around the city to relax, he found both Ash and Misty in the cafeteria having lunch, but neither had spotted him come in.

"I can't believe that Flint, and Mason, thinking that I can't win a battle" Ash growled as he ate his rice.

"But Mason does have a point, Ash, Gym leaders are much tougher than your average trainer, they face multiple battles a day, they have to be strong to challenge people who want their badges." Misty countered before taking a drink, "Just look at how hard Mason had to train before he finally challenges for the badge. It sounds like he put in a lot of work before he finally thought himself ready."

"But that's him, he's been here all this time, while I've been out in the forest, I bet he hasn't even faced one other trainer other than that Gym leader, I'm way tougher than him" Ash stated, "I could win in that gym no problem. I mean come on, we both became trainers on the exact same day, he can't be better than me."

Mason's fists were clenched by his side, he'd heard enough. "Is that a fact." Mason stated as he announced himself, "you think you're better than me? Then tell me this, how many books on Pokémon have you read? How many hours did you spend studying the Pokémon you were going to train? How many hours have you spent in intense training with your Pokémon since you got them, and I don't mean just making them train, I mean actually actually getting into exercising yourself? How many battles have you won. Pokémon you have caught? Because I can bet that I've got done more in every part of that than you."

Ash stood up, "for your information I didn't read any books, I watched documentaries on the television," he said as he puffed up his chest, "and I've won my fair share of battles, I defeated a samurai trainer in the forest, you just weren't there to see it."

Misty burst out giggling when the samurai battle was mentioned, "you may have one the first round on pure luck, but then you two idiots pitted Metapod against Metapod, and that battle had no real winner, it went on for hours"

Ash grumbled at that before glaring at Mason, "and as for Pokémon I now have three, just as many as you have, so you can't be a better trainer than me."

Mason glared at him, "actually I now have four Pokémon, I caught one on the way out of the forest. And all of them are better trained than yours. Evident by my single gym badge to your none." he stated firmly.

"Did you use Poliwag in the battle with Brock?" Misty asked curiously.

Mason shook his head, "I didn't, I wanted to win without a type advantage, and I did"

Misty whistled impressed, "well that settles it," she said before turning to Ash, "he's a much better trainer than you are."

"No, he's not." Ash snapped as he slammed his hands on the table, "I was able to evolve my Caterpie into a Butterfree in two days. I bet none of his Pokémon are as strong as mine. I'm the better trainer."

Mason sighed, "There's one simple way to settle this matter to determine who the better trainer is," he said before pointing his finger at Ash, "I challenge you to a Pokémon battle, three on three, since that's all you have, and to make things interesting, I say we make a wager on the battle. That after out battle, the loser has to pay for the next three meals all three of us have," he challenged knowing there was no way Ash would turn down the chance to battle or the added incentive of three free meals out of it, besides it would only help his pocketbook.

Misty smirked, "fine by me, I get free meals, either way, ~" she chirped happily, pleased that Mason had included her in their little bet.

"You're on!" Ash said as he stepped out from behind the table

"Good, let's go!" Mason said as he turned and began to lead Ash the front of the Pokémon centre with Misty following them both, oh he was looking forward to this.