Chapter seven- A trip to the library and Rocket grunts

It was about an hour after his battle with Gary that Mason found himself walking toward the local library in Cerulean city. Gary had already left once more to continue his badge hunt wishing Mason well. They had actually struck up a decent accord over the hour they had chatted after their battle.

The battle, as well as the talk they had after, had really opened Mason's eyes to things that he had been blind to earlier. The first part of his journey from Pallet to Pewter had just the warm-up, and it was clear why. Mount Moon.

While it wasn't a very big mountain in Mason's eyes, it did serve as one thing, a barrier. It was the only straight path through to the rest of the region and the major cities. One only had to look at the map to see that.

And looking around now Mason could see the difference. In comparison to Cerulean city, Pewter city was a quaint little backwater town, there was no real comparison when it came to size.

Gary had explained it to him well, Mount Moon served as the gateway into the rest of the region and Cerulean city was the crossroads where most trainers passed through as it had so many various connecting routes. It was where most trainers learned just what the rest of the world had to offer.

And looking in the various shop windows Mason could see that. He could see shops dedicated to various things he had only seen in the games, Shops that specialised in TMs, Pokéballs, fishing rods, bikes, technology and various other things, as he walked down the street. He knew he would have to do some major battling to win some cash and go on a spending spree later to get more gear. Though as of yet he didn't know how he was going to carry it all.

But right now he had his mind focused on a single task. His talk with Gary had given him many questions that he needed answers, and while Gary had told him several things, he needed more information and the newspapers and records in the archives of the Curealean library were sure to be able to give him his answers.

Time skip

It was five hours later that Mason was leaving the Cerulean city Library his mind swimming with all the information that he had taken in from the many newspapers that he had read as he made his way over to one of the benches outside to take a break and get some air.

The records and newspaper articles had been very informing. Apparently, it had all started with the Regional champions, Lance Wataru and Steven Stone, in an effort to better their regions. While each region had a governing body the champions and Elite Four were the main part of that governing body as well as the regions strongest trainers, Masters in their own rights.

The Champion and the Elite four had a large group of trainers under them, called Ace trainers, who were at Elite level themselves, all with years of experience and had been high ranked trainers in various tournaments and had even challenged the Elite at various times.

It's what most trainers settled to be after spending so long on their other dreams and he could see why. They got paid huge amounts by the league and they answered only to the Elite Four and the champion of their region. They were given privileges and authority that matched most Gym leaders who were the first line of defence for their cities when a crisis happened.

Other trainers went into law enforcement, the likes of the Rangers who dealt in Pokémon only crime where no humans were involved, or the Police who handled the human side of things.

Of course, there were other jobs that most trainers settled for if they weren't that skilled, but in the grand scheme of things they weren't really that notable. Breeders, shop keepers, ranch handlers, researchers and other jobs of the like were common for most. The lucky few were even drafted to work for the two titan companies, Silph Co and Devons Corporation, to field-test their technology and various other things.

It had been the joint ventures between those two companies, at the prompting of Steven Stone, at the time Hoenn champion that had begun it all when new technologies had started to make peoples and trainers lives easier. Thinks like the Pokégear from Jhoto allowed for communication outside of Pokémon centres and landlines. The Pokénav allowed for easier travelling and fewer trainers getting lost.

It was very apparent that in the last two years that the Pokémon world, or at least these four regions, had begun advancing at a rapid pace that had been unprecedented in the years before.

Mason rubbed the bridge of his eyes as he tried to think. It was great that the regions were advancing, but spending five hours staring at a screen as he read over all of those old records had left him with a bit of a headache.

There was just so much to it all Mason realised things were going to be a lot harder than he had originally thought. True he knew that he was going to be fine in the long run, he wasn't going to slack off on his training. But with TMs being an actuality, it meant that weaker trainers would have access to powerful moves as long as they had the cash.

It was going to prove to be much more of a challenge than Mason had thought it originally was going to be but that only made him smirk. A challenge was what he wanted.

Slowly Mason's headache began to ebb away and he got to his feet with a sigh, 'well I guess it's time to see what the shops have to offer me, the library can only tell me so much about the world now, I need to see things first hand. And if anyone asks I can just use mount moon as an excuse for my lack of knowledge on things' he thought to himself as he started off, it was still early evening, so he would have at least a couple of hours to take in the town and see about doing some pricing.

Time skip

It was two hours later that Mason found himself sitting in the Pokémon centre once more, this time he was completely gobsmacked by everything he had seen in the past couple of hours. This town was a gold mine for everything a trainer could possibly need.

There were so many shops and stalls that Mason was sure he had only just gotten through less than half of them to do some pricing and get some answers to some of the questions bobbing around his head.

Within the first fifteen minutes of looking Mason had gotten his answer to a single burning question as to how trainers carried so much and the answer had him floored. Specially designed compression backpacks, made by devons corporation with their space technology had been the answer. They made his backpack look like a plastic bag in comparison.

Add onto that there were special compression pods that were similar to Pokéballs that could expand up to the size of a grown man for storage of food and other items, that could then shrink down to the size of three expanded Pokéballs. That had answered another question as to how trainers carried enough food and supplies on them for weeks on end.

Of course, such technology was going to be expensive, the backpack alone cost around twenty-five thousand, and each of the compression pods cost five thousand. Mason knew he was going to have to work his ass off to get himself at least the backpack and then at least three of the pods. Both made everything inside it lightweight with the technology used in them and he was getting a little tired with having to lug all his stuff around with him. He was fit but even the trip from Pewter had made him realise that travelling with regular bags was impractical.

But therein was the problem, he only had limited money, even after Gary had generously given him a nice little payout after their match. He had just shy of seven thousand, enough for one pod, but he wasn't just about to settle for that, he needed cash and quick, if Ash stuck to the canon timeline and ditched his training he'd be there the next day he really didn't want to have to travel with the group so early and had been hoping to perhaps skip town before they caught up, but now it was looking like he would have no choice.

It was then that the Pokémon centre doors opened and two trainers came rushing in Pokéballs in hand, a boy and girl both looking like they had been through a rough time of it.

Mason arched an eyebrow as he watched them run-up to the counter and desperately plead for nurse joy to help their Pokémon.

Getting to his feet Mason began to walk over, "Did something happen?" he asked curiously wondering what had left them in such a state.

The boy turned to him as Nurse Joy walked off with their Pokéballs, "You could say that. We got in way over our heads"

The girl shook her head, "I don't even know why I let you talk me into trying it, that bridge is no joke"

"I know, I know, I just thought that between the two of us we could hack it" The boy tried to defend himself.

"Bridge?" Mason asked curiously as he wondered if it was what he was thinking.

"Yeah, the Nugget bridge," The boy replied, "it's a challenge just north of the city, some group is sponsoring it, there's a huge cash prize at the end of it for any trainer who can beat all the trainers from one side of the bridge to the other, it's really intense"

"We only lasted four trainers before we got washed out" the girl sighed.

"Sound interesting," Mason replied as he thought to himself, if it was the same as in the video game then he suspected what group as behind it, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to draw their attention but then again he needed the cash.

"Trust me, stay clear of it, you'll only end up getting washed out" The boy warned before both of them walked off to the waiting area to wait for their Pokémon to be treated.

Mason stood for a moment thinking to himself as he weighed the pros and cons in his mind, it would give his Pokémon training and mean a large payout of some kind, he wasn't sure how much exactly but he hoped it would be enough to get him what he needed.

On the downside of things, it would in all likelihood put him on team Rockets radar, the real team rocket and not those three wannabes that followed Ash and co.

Sighing he rubbed the back of his head, 'I guess it couldn't hurt to at least go and check it out, too bad I can't abuse this like how I did back in the video game' he thought to himself as he remembered just how badly the bridge was easy to abuse in the games with how one could just beat all the trainers and then go back to swap for a weak Pokémon in the centre, usually the Magikarp that he bought before going into mount moon and then going back to the team rocket fight and losing on purpose and getting a nugget each time regardless, it was easy money.

Sadly life wasn't a video game and turning on his heels Mason began to walk towards the exit to go in search of the nugget bridge to see if it was anything like that he thought it would be.

Time skip

It was nothing like Mason thought it would be. For starters the bridge looked much bigger in real life and there looked to be a tonne more trainers on it than Mason had thought there would be, at least three times as many as the poultry five that the games had, now he could see why the other guy was telling him to stay clear.

Looking to the side of the bridge there was a sign posted that had golden writing on it that caught Mason's eye.

"Nugget bridge challenge, take on the fifteen bridge trainers and fortune beyond your wildest dreams"

Reading down the poster Mason could see that each trainer was guaranteed to pay out at least a thousand Pokédollars if you beat them, and the grand prize was listed to be at least north of twenty-five thousand. That got Mason's attention bad, that guaranteed at least a minimum payout of forty thousand which would guarantee him enough to get the bag and pods that he would need to make travelling a hell of a lot easier and if it was more then he would be set for everything else that he had his eyes on.

Reaching down he brushed his fingers against the four Pokéballs on his belt as he thought it over. He didn't want to attract the attention of Team Rocket if they were behind this, and after Poliwag had evolved he wanted to give it some time to adjust to its new body before putting it into more battles.

But he supposed that battling in his new form would be just as good, he could always use his other Pokémon to battle and keep Poliwhirl out of the battles. Though fifteen trainer battles in a row, that was going to be a hell of a strain if they were any kind of power. His battle with Gary had made him wary about battling.

'But I don't have time to do anything else, as it stands this is my only viable option' Mason thought to himself as he eyed the bridge his fists clenched by his sides before sighing, "oh well, go big or go home, time to see if all this training has been worth it," he said before plucking Dratini's Pokéball from his belt and stepping toward the bridge.

As soon as his second foot stepped on to the raised platform a young man in a white vest shirt strode out into the open with a Pokéball in his hand and a smirk on his face.

"Well another challenger for the bridge, that makes three today," the young man said cockily, "you ready to lose"

Mason smirked, "not going to happen," he said before tossing Dratini's Pokéball out onto the bridge as he started the challenge.

Time skip (did you really think I was going to go over fifteen battles in one chapter)

It was a full hour later that Mason strode off the opposite end of the Nugget bridge looking exhausted. Fifteen battles one right after the other was not something that he was planning to try any time again soon.

The onslaught had been near-endless after the first trainer. At first, he had thought it was going to be easier than he thought, the first four trainers only had one or two Pokémon, mostly the standard lot, and not overly powerful. It had been from the fifth trainer on that things had begun to get difficult with each trainer up until number ten having three Pokémon each, and one of which had been an evolution above, Nidorino, Pidgeotto, Graveller, Raticade to name but a few.

Those stronger evolutions had proved to be a little trickier, being well trained, but he had still prevailed. It was when he started in on the double-digit battles is when things had really gotten tougher with four Pokémon a trainer two of which were evolutions and both clearing being backed with moves that could only have been taught by TMs.

Nidorino with Take Down, Body Slam, Double-Edge and even one with Thunderbolt. Raticade with Double team, Dig, swift and Hyper Beam, Pidgeotto with Razor Wind and Toxic had been particularly troublesome to deal with. The last trainer had even had a Graveler who had been taught a particularly troubling combo with Earthquake and Fire Blast that Poliwhirl had only just been quick enough to avoid.

Needless to say, the Nugget bridge had been nothing like how he had remembered it in the video games and he was glad for that, he would have rage quit so many times if it had been and called bullshit.

'I am definitely getting my team some TMs as soon as possible to speed things along. Training is all well and good but if trainers are going to be like that in the future then I'm seriously going to get my ass handed to me unless I step things up and fast' he thought to himself. But despite everything, he was proud of how his team had pulled through and he was glad to have finished it. Just as that thought crossed his mind however, he caught sight of two men walking towards him. Both looking particularly shady but pleased to see him.

"Congratulations Young man," the first said gleefully, "you're the first to successfully defeat the nugget bridge challenge, and I must say that was a wonderful display of power"

Mason nodded, "thanks, I take it you're both representatives of the group that sponsored this challenge?" he asked playing it carefully as he watched both men nod.

"Indeed we are, young man, and for successfully completing the challenge we'd like to present you with these as a token of thanks for that wonderful display," the second man said holding a wooden box in his hands which he opened revealing six golden nuggets inside it that gleamed in the sunlight.

Mason smirked seeing them, if the price on those nuggets were as high as they were in the video games, then that was easily thirty thousand Pokédollars right there. He had already won plenty from the battles on the bridge. Five thousand from the first five trainers, seven and a half thousand from the next five and a whopping ten thousand from the final five trainers. All in all, he now had twenty-seven and a half thousand Pokédollars to his name, no small amount considering he was only at this stage in things, thirty thousand more would see him set up well and proper.

"Thank you," Mason said as he reached forward to take the box from the man wanting to get his hands on them and leave quickly. Of course, things are never that simple.

"Ah just one second please," the other man said as he stepped into his way, "before you accept your prize, we have an offer to make you. You see, our group is interested in strong trainers like yourself. We actually set this challenge up in an effort to find worthy trainers that had the potential that our Boss is looking for in the organisation. As part of our group these nuggets would only be mere drops in the ocean of wealth you could amass with your strength as part of our organization."

"Someone of your strength would no doubt be able to climb the inner rankings and bring great glory to our organisation," the man behind him said still holding the box in his hands.

"So why not join us," the first man said again grinning sinisterly, "it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to use your strength and become famous throughout the world as a member of the Team Rocket Elite"

Mason smirked, 'called it' he thought to himself internally before shaking his head, "I think you mean Infamous." he corrected casually, "thanks but no thanks, I have no interest in joining up with any groups, I'm strong enough on my own. Besides, I'm no one's lap dog."

Almost instantly the two men's smiles turned into scowls as the man with the box slammed it shut.

"Oh, so you think you're hot stuff do you," the first man sneered, "just because you beat a few trainers, all that winning has gone to your head kid"

"This is your last chance," the second man said as he took a Pokéball from his inner jacket, "you can either join us and we can forget about what you just said. Or we can make you wish you had never been born and take your Pokémon. Either way, we win, so what's it going to be, kid"

Mason's smirk never faltered, "I think it's you two who have the big heads," he said before casually moving his hands and pushing the buttons on two of his Pokéballs having taken them from his belt as the two been giving their little sales pitch. And out of the balls appeared Dratini and Scyther by his sides.

The two men growled, "so be it" the first man said as he tossed his Pokéball, followed by a second as both back-peddled to make room.

The balls burst open and Mason watched as a Golbat and Raticade burst forth from their balls.

He knew both Dratini and Scyther were ready to go, they had been the ones to take the least amount of damage in his battles on the bridge, he had their Pokéballs close at hand just in case things went as he suspected they would.

"Golbat use bite!", "Raticade use hyper fang!" the two men ordered and their Pokémon moved to carry out their master's commands.

Mason scowled, "Dratini, blow them both back with Twister! Scyther ready for an offensive with Swords Dance!" he ordered

His Pokémon moved instantly. Dratini instantly crying out as the draconic winds whipped around them and hit both Golbat and Raticate in their advanced knocking them back as Scyther crossed his bladed as a powerful aura began to coat its body as it gave a powerful cry.

"We'll teach you to mess with us kid!" one of the men yelled, their shirts having been blown open by the wind revealing their black undershirts with the red R's emblazoned on them identifying them as Rocket Grunts.

"Both of you, use Hyper Beam!" the other grunt yelled in anger.

Mason's eyes narrowed as he watched both Pokémon begin to gather energy in their mouths to launch devastating attacks, he had yet to see a Hyper beam used in person and he wasn't looking forward to doing so in these conditions.

"Scyther, Dratini use Agility to dodge, get behind them" he ordered, saying the last part softly so that only they could hear.

Both Pokémon nodded and disappeared in a blur of high speed just as both Golbat and Raticade launched their attacks, Mason had to jump clear of the explosions that made the trainers on the bridge start running away.

"Now!" Mason yelled as he started to get up from his rather hasty dodge, "Scyther, use X-scissor on Raticade, Dratini use Dragon Rage on Golbat, then hit the lot of them with Twister!"

The attack was instantaneous. Both Scyther and Dratini reappeared behind their opponents, not staggered from the powerful attacks and wide open. Scyther crossed its arms as they glowed ominously and it shot forward at the large rat Pokémon, cutting the large X that flared green as it hit its mark as Raticade gave out a cry before falling faint. Dratini wasted no time as it launched the draconic ball of fire from its mouth that hit the large bag Pokémon from behind sending it crashing to the ground out cold just like its partner, only for both of them to be caught by the powerful winds that Dratini summoned that picked both of them up along with the Rocket Grunts and began to swirl them around in the powerful cyclone that began to take shape.

The Rocket grunts were yelling as they were tossed about but Mason could hardly hear them over the powerful winds that whipped his coat about him. "Now smash them into the ground!" Mason ordered with a scowl wanting to end this now.

Dratini did just as ordered and with a cry, the cyclone bent to the small dragons will and with plenty of power behind it smashed both rocket grunts and Pokémon into the ground hard before dissipating leaving them in a heap.

As the winds died down Mason began to approach the downed Rockets, both of them were unconscious and weren't going to be any more trouble to him now. Using his boot he rolled one of them over and grinned as he took the box with his prize inside. Turning he began to leave only to pause as he stopped and looked back at the grunts and their Pokémon.

He had no doubt that he would definitely be on team Rocket's radar after this.

'oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound' he thought before making his way back over to them and after a moment found what he was looking for, 'if they are going to come after me anyway over this, might as well pour salt on the wound' he thought before he drove the heel of his boot down and crushed both of the grunts Pokéballs before he took one of the empty ones from his belt and tossed it at the unconscious Golbat.

There was no resistance at all as the next second the light on the front of the ball went out before he scooped it up and looked to his two Pokémon, "looks like we've got ourselves a new team member," he said as he shrunk the Pokéball.

Dratini gave a small cry of agreement and Scyther nodded it's head solemnly content with the action. Before both of them disappeared into red energy as Mason recalled them both to their balls before looking to the unconscious Raticade and shook his head. He didn't really have need of it on his team, Golbat would be enough for him. Besides, it was free of its ball now, with any luck it would wake up before the two grunts realise it was free and take off, he was sure none of the Pokémon team rocket used actually wanted to do the things they were used for.

With that thought Mason turned and started back down the Nugget Bridge to head back into the City, he had some nuggets to sell and an anonymous tip to leave to the local police about two shady characters at that end of the nugget bridge.