6 Chapter six- A real battle, welcome to the world

It was the next day that Mason awoke with a loud yawn and a stretch as he climbed out of one of the comfortable beds in the Cerulean City Pokémon centre. He had made it there the evening prior with no problems and had managed a full dinner before going to bed thanking his lucky stars that he had made it out of the cave as fast as he had and hadn't had to camp out.

After a quick shower and a change of clothing. Mason saw himself down to the cafeteria of the Pokémon centre and after dishing out his teams' breakfast he sat down to a healthy breakfast himself, along with a large mug of dark coffee to help wake himself up.

He was just finishing his breakfast and pouring himself a second cup when the doors to the cafeteria opened and a familiar-sounding voice filled the air, laced with arrogance.

"So are you the guy my grandpa told me about, you don't look so tough"

Flashback

The streetlights were just coming on in Cerulean city as Mason finally made it to the Pokémon centre, relieved to finally be there after such a long walk.

Making his way inside Mason made his way over to the phone and made his call back to Pallet Town and Professor Oak's Lab, as the old Professor appeared on the screen once more.

"Ah Mason my lad, I didn't expect to be hearing from you for a few more days, is something wrong?" the old professor asked.

Mason shook his head, "no nothing's wrong professor, just calling to keep you up to date and to ask a favour if it's possible. I've only just reached Cerulean city after leaving Pewter just this morning, Ash and Misty caught back up with me, and after setting Ash straight and finally getting him to start training properly. I decided it was time to move on." he informed him.

"My, you're making good headway aren't you, already at Cerulean you say," Oak said sounding rather impressed, "it's good to hear that Ash finally caught up with you. I was beginning to worry about that boy, but how did you manage to get him to train, his mother and I tried when he was younger to try to get him to study more but that boy always seemed to prefer watching battles than reading any of the books we gave him."

Mason shook his head, "I had to make him see that things weren't going to be as easy as he hoped. I faced him in a Pokémon battle and beat him badly. I think that might have done the trick to get him to take things seriously from now on, but I'm not holding my breath. If he makes it here before the week is out then I'll know he didn't stick to proper training."

Oak seemed to nod solemnly hearing how Mason tried to get through to Ash, "I appreciate the effort lad, but I fear that Ash may be too stubborn for his own good. That may not be the last time you have to do that" he sighed before changing the subject, "now, you mentioned you needed to ask me a favour, how can I help my lad"

Mason nodded in agreement as he feared the same but decided to leave it to the future to worry about Ash, he wasn't there right now and so wasn't his top priority. "On the way here to Cerulean I came across a sign that had a signature on it and a message for Ash, I was wondering if you knew who Gary, would be?"

Oak groaned, "I do. He's my grandson, he has a bit of an attitude problem some times. What did the message say?" he said asking that last with a little bit of worry.

""Gary was here. Ash is a loser."" Mason recited with a small smirk as Oak groaned and shook his head on the other end of the line, "Anyway, my favor was that I was hoping you could tell me where exactly Gary was now, I've been itching for a good battle to keep my skills sharp for the gym, that is if Gary isn't all talk."

Oak seemed to get pensive at that as he thought for a moment, "let me see, the last I heard from him, he was leaving Vermilion city after getting his third badge there." he said thinking, "if you are sure, I have his number and I could call him for you to arrange for him to make a stop in Cerulean to battle you, I'm sure he wouldn't turn down the challenge."

Mason's eyes seemed to spark with excitement at the idea of facing a trainer who had already beaten the gym after this, "that would be great Professor. If you could tell him to come on by the Pokémon centre in Cerulean that would be great"

Flash back end

And sure enough, when Mason looked up from his second coffee, there standing in the door was Gary Oak, a confident almost smug smile on his face as he and Mason's eyes met as they seemed to weigh each other up.

After a moment a smile just like Gary's came to Mason's face, "that would be me, I take it you're Gary Oak then?" he asked just for politeness as he stood up from his seat coffee cup in hand.

"The one and only" Gary responded, "My gramps called me and told me a "promising" trainer was looking to challenge me and that it would be worth my time to accept" he said before glancing over to Mason's Pokémon who were finishing their food, "I can see he was right, that's a really diverse team you have there, they look well trained, and some really rare Pokémon, a Scyther and a Dratini. Where'd you get them?"

Mason smirked as he walked around the table and began to approach Gary, "thanks. Scyther I caught in Viridian forest on my way to Pewter, and Dratini is my starter, I hatched him from an egg that your grandfather gave me." he explained.

"Tch." Garry clicked his teeth, "I should have known the old man was holding back on me like that, a rare Pokémon like that tucked away and not even a word to me" he muttered shaking his head, "So you ready to battle or what? I'm a busy guy."

Mason smirked, "you impatient to lose?" he said back cockily.

Gary smirked, "hardly, more like impatient to show you what a real trainer can do, you said you came from Pewter right, you probably only have one or two badges, while I have three. This match will be a piece of cake."

Mason smirked before downing his cup of coffee in one go and putting it on a table next to them, "Badges don't mean shit, skill does, and from what I've seen so far of you your all hot air. Quit your boasting and let's battle."

Time skip

It was ten minutes after that, Mason found himself standing across the battlefield from Gary as the two prepared for the start of their battle. Both clearly siked for the battle to come.

"Woooh, Gary Gary, he's our man, if he can't do it no one can" chanted Gary's little posse of girls over to the left of the battlefields who had come to watch the battle.

Internally Mason was conflicted, he didn't know whether to approve, hate or envy Gary for the fact that he travelled around with over five beautiful women, all of who were drop-dead gorgeous. And without gawking at them he could see they were clearly older than him and Gary. He just couldn't work it out, why they followed him.

Sure Mason knew from what he had seen of Gary in the anime that he was skilled and he had some swagger, but really. Mason sighed and pushed it to the back of his mind deciding that it wasn't something he'd ever understanding as he pushed his coat out of the way to reveal the four Pokéballs on his belt.

"Ready when you are Gary" Mason called as he got ready for things to start.

Gary smirked, "having me call out my Pokémon first so you can choose a type advantage? Clever, you'll need all the advantages you can get" he said as he took his own ball from his belt and tossed it out onto the field, "Nidorino, let's go!"

Sure enough, the ball burst open and in a flash of light the Poison point Pokémon appeared on the battlefield its head lowered as it began to scrape at the ground with its feet. It was thick and pointy spikes rand down the length of its back with smaller ones all over its violet hide and looked to be quite strong.

Mason looked the Pokémon over smiling as he did so, "I can see that I'm not the only one who has trained his Pokémon well, you don't disappoint" he said as he pulled the fourth ball from his belt and tossed it, "Scyther, ready for battle!"

Just like Gary's ball Mason's burst open and Scyther appeared on the field as it crossed its bladed arms slashing at the air in a ready stance as both Pokémon eyed each other across the field sizing the other up.

Gary smirked, "starting off with Scyther ay? Not a bad choice, looks like this will be a challenge after all," he said before he threw his hand out, "Nidorino, start things off with a Horn Attack!" he ordered.

Upon hearing the order Nidorino immediately began charging it's head lowered with its horn out.

"Dodge it Scyther, don't let it get close, use Vacuum Wave!" Mason ordered in retaliation.

Scyther moved, just barely dodging Nidorino's sharp horn and made to slash at the air in the direction of the poison point Pokémon as the air seemed to ripple and a rippling slash of air was sent at Nidorino from behind.

"Nidorino jump and use Poison Sting!" Gary ordered and a second before the attack landed Nidorino was in the air, narrowly avoiding the attack from behind as it turned in midair and shot out a spray of poison needles from its mouth.

"Shit!" Mason cursed under his breath, "use Razor Wind to deflect them and counter!" Mason ordered hurriedly thinking on the spot.

Scyther obeyed and began slashing at the air with its bladed arms as it began whipping the wind into a frenzy lashing out at the poison missiles as they came closer knocking them off course and missing. After a moment several blades of air broke from the wind and shot at Nidorino who was righting itself to attack.

"Dodge them Nidorino and use Double Kick!" Gary ordered giving all his attention to the battle.

Nidorino moved with surprising speed as it weaved in and out as the blades came at it each barely missing by a thread as Nidorino closed in on Scyther before it jumped up and threw itself into its kicks.

The wind around Scyther was only just calming down and Mason wasn't able to issue any orders until it did and the attacks went through, Scyther was only just able to bring its bladed arms up to block the kicks with their flat sides as each kick landed pushing it back.

As Scyther came to a halt it slashed the air again looking ready for battle once more before it seemed to flinch and drop to a knee its expression grim.

"Scyther!" Mason called out worried as he looked at his Pokémon wondering what the matter was, the kicks didn't look to have done that much damage. But then he saw it, the sicky purple marks on Scythers blades and he mentally cursed himself 'Fuck, I'm so stupid, Nidorino's special ability, it's poison point.'

Gary smirked, "looks like your Scyther got a little bit too close to my Nidorino when he took those kicks, looks like this first battle is mine, Nidorino use Focus Energy and then wrap this up with another Horn Attack!"

Nidorino let out a cry as its body began to glow a bright purple as its eyes sharpened before it took charge at Scyther once more closing the distance fast its horn primed to strike.

"Scyther," Mason called thinking fast, "use Agility to dodge it, and then use X-scissor!"

Even in its poisoned state Scyther was still able to move, and hearing Mason's command wasn't about to give up as Nidorino closed in and a second before its attack landed it blurred out of the way reappearing just to Nidorino's left as its bladed arms glowed brightly as they cut through the air and caught Nidorino point-blank across its side and sent the quadruped Pokémon across the battlefield and crashing to a halt its eyes spinning from the powerful attack.

"What the!" Gary said in shock his eyes wide seeing his Pokémon taken out by a single attack, a complete turn around from what things had been looking like moments before. His girls seemed to agree with them as they all looked cress fallen that Gary's first Pokémon had lost.

Mason let out a sigh of relief that had been too close, it had been a good thing that Scyther's physical attacks had only gotten stronger in their training to learn ranged type moves, they needed a lot of power to be able to attack at range. It had been a gamble, they had only been able to use X-scissor once before in training, and it was proving difficult for Scyther to get it down but Mason knew that it would have to have been that or nothing to finish the battle then and there.

'And I think I know why, Scyther I think you have the swarm ability, to make your bug type moves more powerful when you've taken damage' Mason thought to himself as he raised Scythers ball, "good job Scyther, come on back and take a good rest, I'll take you to Nurse Joy to get healed right after this match is over" he said as he returned the Mantis Pokémon to its ball.

"What the hell was that move you used, X-scissor, I've never heard of it before," Gary asked as he recalled his downed Nidorino at the same time.

"That's likely because it's a move that Scyther has been in the stages of developing, it's just one of the moves that I've discovered with my team, didn't your gramps tell you, he seemed fairly excited when I told him about it the first time" Mason stated

"A new move?" Gary said completely shocked, "no he didn't, I guess I can see now why he thinks you're hot stuff, and I gotta say that I'm starting to agree with him. That Scyther was something else to be able to move like that while poisoned, you've sure trained it well"

Mason smirked, "thanks, ready for the next round?" he asked as he took a Pokéball off his belt.

Gary grinned, "you know it, you've got me curious now," he said as he took the ball off his belt and tossed it, "lets go, Growlithe!" he called as the ball burst open and in a flash of light the small canine Pokémon appeared on the field giving a bark of challenge towards Mason.

Mason smirked, "A Growlithe, nice, let's see how you handle this then" he called as he tossed his Pokéball up into the air, "Spearow, ready for battle!" he called as the ball burst open and Spearow soared out of it with a cry as it spread its wings and turned midair and came flying back down towards the battlefield.

Mason grinned, "I like your thinking, let's start this off with an Aerial Ace!" he yelled as Spearow shot down with high speed its energy gathering around it as it did so.

Before Gary even had a chance to call out for Growlithe to dodge Spearow shot by the canine and caught it in its side and launched it several feet across the stadium.

"Growlithe you okay!" Gary called worried. Growlithe got up shaking its head and barked in response making Gary nod back before looking to Mason, "I suppose that's another of the new moves you discovered?"

Mason smirked and nodded, "Yep, and it's too fast to dodge, think you can keep up?" he called as Spearow let out a cry of challenge from above.

Growlithe growled back at the challenge and Gary smirked, "Don't you worry we can handle it, show'm Growlithe, use Flamethrower! Bring that bird down!" he ordered as the girls cheered him on.

Growlithe howled flames gathered in its mouth and it let out a stream of flames from its mouth skyward towards Spearow.

Mason smirked, "Spearow, use Agility to dodge and then set up a Double Team!" he called out as she flames raced towards the small bird.

Spearow cried before it blurred out of the path of the flames at high speed and soared around the arena as it let out another cry as a dozen other doubles of Spearow appeared in the air as well circling overhead.

"Nice try but it'll take more than that to get us, Growlithe use Fire Blast scorch them all!" Gary ordered, "Full power!"

Growlithe gave another howl as it gathered a large ball of flames in its mouth before letting them loose skyward in a large star-shaped blast that spread out as it rose higher up.

Mason mentally cursed, "Spearow use Agility, climb higher get away from the flames!" he yelled, hoping if Spearow got high enough the thin air would snuff out the flames, there was no way to dodge an attack like that, it covered such a large area, 'Damn I didn't see this coming, Gary's good' he thought to himself.

Spearow hearing the command broke from its doubles and shot up into the sky as the flames grew closer going higher as fast as it could as Mason watched in horror as even as Spearow tried to outrun the flames they kept going only losing the smallest of power as Spearow reached its limit and the flames washed over him.

"Spearow!" Mason yelled out, his eyes wide as the sky lit up in the explosion that followed. His eyes wide as Spearow's form fell through the smoke freefalling from the great height that it had climbed in its efforts to try and escape the flames.

Mason felt his stomach clench as he gripped Spearow's Pokéball and was about to raise it to call Spearow back when the small bird righted itself, turning as it fell its wings stretching out as it let out a cry of Spearow as it began to dive back down.

"What the!" Gary said in shock seeing Spearow still conscious.

Mason swallowed as he looked at Spearow from afar, it was burnt badly from the attack, its feathers badly singed, he could tell that only the height had saved it from being taken out from that attack, he needed to end this quickly.

"Spearow, end this now with a Divebomb Aerial Ace!" Mason yelled, knowing Spearow was low on energy and that this would be a last-ditch move.

Spearow cried as it beat its wings and shot straight down as it gathered its energy that began to swirl around it as it shot down like a meteor towards Growlithe.

"Growlithe quick, knock it out of the sky with another Fire Blast!" Gary ordered hastily as Spearow got closer.

Growlithe instantly began to gather flames in its mouth again as it got ready to fire off another devastating fire attack as Spearow shot downward, opening its mouth to fire just as Spearow came close and the two attacks collided.

The explosion shook the very ground as energies hit one another, followed with a large cloud of smoke that filled the area, that both Mason and Gary had to turn away from, the smoke making their eyes water

"Spearow!", "Growlithe!" both trainers yelled into the smoke as they tried to spot their Pokémon through the thick smoke.

It took a long thirty seconds for the smoke to clear away enough for them to see the forms of both their downed Pokémon in the arena, Spearow laid out flat, across from a downed Growlithe, the result of the attacks clearly having been too much for both Pokémon to handle.

Gary sighed, "Damn," he said as he raised his Pokéball recalling Growlithe as Mason did the same, "that's one hell of a Spearow you've trained, to take a Fire Blast from my Growlithe and still be able to battle."

Mason nodded as he looked at Spearow's Pokéball in his hand and smile, "take a good rest Spearow, I'll get you to nurse joy as soon as this battle is over" he said feeling no small amount of pride in how well Spearow had performed in his match as he returned Spearow's ball to his belt before he took the next one and tossed it out, "Poliwag, ready to battle!" he called as Poliwag appeared on the field looking hyped and ready to fight.

"Poliwag ay" Gary smirked, "Perfect," he said as he did the same as he called, "Graveler, lets go!"

Gary's ball burst open and the large boulder Pokémon took to the field with a large thud as its feet hit the ground letting out a challenging cry as it balled its fists and glared at Poliwag, which Poliwag returned.

"A Graveler?" Mason said in shock arching an eyebrow at Gary's choice, "against a water type" he said as he began to frown, 'Either he's extremely confident in Graveler's strength or he's seriously underestimating Poliwags' mason thought to himself before speaking, "Interesting choice"

Gary smirked, "I've been training Graveler to resist water type moves, he's gotten so strong that he was what won it for me at this town's gym, think you can keep up with that!" Gary said in a challenge.

"We'll just have to see then won't we," Mason shot back, "Poliwag use Bubblebeam!" he ordered.

Poliwag instantly complied as it began to let out a dense stream of bubbles towards the large rock Pokémon.

Gary smirked, "take the hit and then use Earthquake!" he orders with a victorious tone to his voice as he did so.

Mason's eyes widened when he heard that, he knew there would be no way for Poliwag to dodge an earthquake, it would shake the entire battlefield and could only watch in horror as the stream of bubbles hit Graveler and not even seem to phase its stone facade before it tilted to one side and with a yell it slammed its foot back on the ground making the entire field shake.

Mason had to brace himself as the field shook to keep himself from falling over, Poliwag wasn't so lucky as the force of the shaking knocked the small tadpole over with a cry

"Poliwag!" Mason called worried, for the small Pokémon.

"Now hit it with Rock Throw!" Gary called as Graveler let out a grunt of confirmation before digging its fists into the ground and pulling out large rocks as it began throwing them at Poliwag.

"Poliwag get up and move!" Mason called seeing the attacks incoming.

Poliwag struggled to get to its feet just as the rocks were about to land, managing to dodge the first but got caught by the second and sent flying from the impact.

"Don't give up Poliwag, show them your Water Gun!" Mason ordered, his fists clenched.

Poliwag grunted as it got to its feet and took in a breath.

Gary snorted, "what's a Water Gun going to do? You've already seen how well Graveler can take water attacks," he said confidently, only to have his confidence washed away when Poliwag let out a massive blast of water from its mouth.

The powerful jet of water struck Graveler right in the face with speed and force knocking the larger and heavier Pokémon right off its feet and straight out of the ring sending it flying back before it crashed into the outer wall of the Pokémon centre leaving a large crater with Graveler in its centre, stuck but still conscious.

"Wow!" Gary said sounding impressed, "that was one hell of a Water Gun"

Mason smirked, "alright Poliwag nice Job" he said praising the small tadpole Pokémon.

"Poli" Poliwhirl began to respond before its entire body began to glow and change.

"Wow," Mason said his eyes wide as a smile came to his face as he recognized what was happening, Watching as Poliwag's form began to grow and change drastically.

As the light began to fade in Poliwags place now stood a powerful looking Poliwhirl that seemed confused as it looked at its hands, "Poli….whirl?" it said with confusion.

Mason grinned, "that's awesome Poliwag, you evolved, now you look even more kick-ass"

"Not bad," Gary said with a smirk, "still not enough to beat us though, Graveller show'm your newest move. Use Double Edge!"

"Gravel!!" Graveler roared as it pushed itself out of the wall and then threw itself into a roll as it shot towards Poliwhirl energy swirling around it as it did so.

"Poliwhirl show them were not one to be taken lightly, Hydro Pump!" Mason ordered inwardly hoping that the evolution would give Poliwhirl the strength now that it had been lacking as a Poliwag for this move.

"Whirl!" Poliwhirl said as it braced itself taking a stance as Graveler came at it.

With less than three meters between them, Poliwhirp pushed forward with effort and a large blast of water short from the front of its body, the pressure of the force stalling Graveler right in its tracks before lifting it off the ground and launching it back and into the air.

"Graveler!" Gary said in complete shock as he watched his Pokémon go airborne before flying back and crashing into the ground only a few feet in front of him, knocked out from both attack and impact.

"Poliwhirl!" Poliwhirl cried in victory as Mason grinned.

"Nicely done Poliwhirl," he said raising Poliwhirls Pokéball, "take a good rest, you've earned it" he praised as he returned his newly evolved Pokémon to its ball.

"Not bad, that's one hell of a water Pokémon you got there," Gary said as he called back his Graveler, "but you're not the only one with a water type you know," he said taking the next ball from his belt, "Wartortle, let's go!"

Wartortle appeared on the battlefield in a flash looking just as confident as its trainer as it looked expectantly towards Mason waiting for him to call out his opponent.

Mason smirked, "Your starter, how fitting." Mason said as he took his final Pokéball from his belt and tossed it out, "Dratini, ready for battle!"

Just like Wartortle, Dratini appeared out on the battlefield and let out a cry of challenge as it saw Wartortle. Wartortle just grinned and took a ready stance when it finally saw its opponent.

"It may be rare but it can't beat us, Wartortle use Water Gun!" Gary ordered looking serious as he commanded his Pokémon.

Wartortle let out a high-pressured stream of water just as commanded right towards Dratini as Mason smirked.

"Dodge, get in close with Wrap!" Mason ordered as he kept his eyes on Wartortle an uneasy feeling in his gut.

Dratini moved fast, ducking under the stream of water before moving toward the larger turtle Pokémon and shot up when it was close enough and wrapped around its body and limbs with its body.

"Nice try, Wartortle Withdraw!" Gary commanded as Wartortle obeyed and pulled all of its limbs inside its shell before ducking its head inside as well.

Mason smirked, "fine by me, Dratini use Thunderwave!"

"No!" Gary yelled as his eyes went wide as Dratini let out a cry and released a bust of electricity out at close range that was impossible to escape at such a distance.

"Now release it and use Twister, toss that turtle!" Mason ordered wanting to get some distance between the two of them and wrap this up as that uneasy feeling in his gut got worse.

Dratini released on command and with a cry called the draconic winds to its command and send the shelled Pokémon flying into the air.

Gary clenched his fists, "Show them we're not to be messed with Wartortle, use Ice Beam!"

Mason's eyes widened, "Dratini move!" he yelled instantly hearing the command as he realised why he had been feeling uneasy.

Wartotrle's head and limbs came out of its shell as it was thrown and hearing the command began to gather the ice energy in its mouth before shooting down at the small dragon.

Dratini heard Mason and saw the attack at the same time, and only just barely got out of the way in time as the patch of ground that it had been standing on was frozen solid by the ice beam.

"No more messing around, Dratini, Use Dragon Rage full power!" Mason ordered, he knew he had to end this quickly, Wartortle knowing an ice type move was worrying him.

"Don't let it. Use Ice Beam!" Gary ordered as Wartortle landed and instantly obeyed gathering ice energy in its mouth again it let out another chilling beam.

Dratini quickly gathered as much draconic energy into its maw as possible before unleashing it right into the path of the ice beam. The two attacks collide but to both Dratini's and Mason's shock, the arctic attack pushed through the draconic flames and dissipated them.

"Move!" Mason yelled, but it was too late.

The arctic beam hit Dratini full centre on its chest and threw it back as Dratini let out a pained cry from the super effective attack as small patches of ice began to gather across its body.

"Dratini!" Mason yelled in worry for his partner his fists clenched and by his side as he saw his partner writhing on the battlefield from the super-effective attack.

"It's over, you didn't really think that I wouldn't be prepared for a dragon type did you," Gary said from the other side of the field, "I plan on taking on the elite four after I win all the badges and the championship, with Lances dragons I need to start working on countermeasures early on, glad to know they work"

Mason scowled, "Dratini, come on, I know you can do this!" he called to his Pokémon, "show him you're not weak"

"Dra!" Dratini cried as it slowly began to get up fighting through the pain of the ice over parts of its body and with another cry began to move forward a look of determination in its eye, and much to Mason's shock parts of his partner's body stayed behind as it moved… no not parts of it, a layer of it.

"Of course," Mason said in a low voice as he watched Dratini shed its skin leaving all the cold patches of ice behind as it moved forward to battle again, 'Shed skin, I completely blanked on that' he thought to himself, as he looked at Dratini and frowned.

Shed skin may have gotten rid of the ice but Dratini still looked like it had taken some major damage from that ice beam, he would have to end this soon.

Gary smirked, "so your dragon can shed its skin to get rid of status effects, that's handy, but it won't matter to us, right Wartortle!" Gary said in bolstered confidence to his starter, "Tortle" Wartortle replied with a grin that matched.

Mason looked over the battlefield as he tried to come up with a plan, a ranged offensive was going to be an option any more, not with their opponents having an ice attack at their disposal, which was even strong enough to counter Dragon Rage, he'd have to come at this from another angle.

"Dratini, get in close, use Agility then use Dragon Rage!" Mason ordered as a plan started to form in his mind.

Dratini let out a cry as it disappeared in a blur as it began moving to carry out its orders.

Gary smirked, "You think that'll work, Wartortle, use Ice Beam again as soon as you see it!"

The turtle Pokémon nodded as it began to take in ice energy as its eyes scanned the battlefield in front of it looking for its opponent to turn into an ice cube.

Unfortunately for it, Dratini chose to appear behind Wartortle with its speed now much higher, Draconic energy already gathering in its maw as it made ready to attack.

"Wartortle behind you!" Gary called to warn his Pokémon of the attack, "Fire hurry!"

Wartortle made to move around to fire, just seeing Dratini in its side vision as it got ready to fire but before it did it stalled, sparks coating its body for a single split second. The Thunderwave from earlier now taking effect and paralyzing the turtle Pokémon at the worst possible moment, or the best, depending on how you look at it.

With its opponent stuck Dratini wasted no time and unleashed the draconic ball of flames from its maw and caught Wartortle point-blank in the face, the impact causing a large explosion as both the ice energy that it had been gathering and the draconic energy collided and reacted rather violently.

"Wartortle!" Gary called worried as the smoke from the explosion began to clear, his cheering squad was silent at the side of the arena as they all watched. Seconds later the form of Wartortle was seen through the smoke, now laid out on the battlefield unconscious from the attack.

Mason let out a breath that he hadn't known that he'd been holding, they did it, they had won.

Scene break

Mason and Gary stood inside the Pokémon centre shaking each other's hand in recognition of each other after having taken their Pokémon to nurse joy to have them treated.

"That was a great match, I'm glad I took my gramps advice not to come and battle you," Gary said with a grin, "you're one heck of a trainer."

"Thanks but I still have a lot to learn, you really had me on the ropes, this battle showed me that I really need to up my game," Mason replied with a smirk of his own.

"Yeah, don't be hard on yourself, not many can compete with the awesomeness that is Gary Oak" Gary boasted with a smirk.

Mason smirked and shook his head as the two of them began to walk over to the waiting area to sit down and wait for their Pokémon to be treated.

"So Gary, care to fill me in on just how you managed to teach your Pokémon so many versatile moves, Flamethrower on Growlithe I can understand, but Fire Blast too, and then there's Graveler with Earthquake and Giga Impact, and not to mention Wartortle's Ice Beam. What's your secret," Mason began to ask, clearly wondering how Gary had taught his Pokémon so many strong moves so early on.

Gary snorted, "TMs of course, you know technical machines," Gary said as if it was obvious.

That made Mason pause and stiffen, "TMs" he repeated in confusion, of course, he knew what they were, no one who had played the Pokémon games in his world didn't but he had only ever heard about them in the game and never the anime. So it was understandable that to Gary his confusion sounded like he didn't know what he was talking about.

"Geeze you must be really behind in the times aren't ya" Gary smirked, "they came out last year, it's all part of that inter-regional program that the leagues have been promoting over the past couple of years, it was the first joint venture between Slip Co here in Kanto and Devon's cooperation in Hoenn" he explained, "they use powerful psychic Pokémon to transfer the memories of techniques from Pokémon and place them onto disks that you can use to teach your Pokémon the moves, really handy" he began to elaborate as he reached into his bag and took out a disk case which looked to be full of various disks.

Mason looked at it incredulously blinking, it looked just like the disk holder from the third generation games. He couldn't understand it why hadn't the anime ever touched on them or any of this inter-regional stuff.

Gary smirked, "you don't know do you," he said, his smirk growing.

Mason rubbed the back of his head sheepishly to keep up the appearance, "Not really, I kind of blanked on most things that I didn't think were important when I was travelling before, mind catching me up"

Gary snorted, "sure," he said as he took out a disk and a small circular device, "the Disks can only be used once to teach one Pokémon a move, of course, they have to be able to learn the move for it to work, so it's best to always check your Pokedex or do some research before you even by the Disk and then go and waste it on a Pokémon who can't use the move" he explained, "though there have been rumours circulating about reusable disks that could be on the market by next year. As it is the companies release about ten new moves every couple of weeks, but only the most experienced trainers can even hope to afford them, with the prices usually being well out of the range of most average trainers but really handy" Gary held up the small circular device and made a show of putting the disk on one end and an empty Pokéball on the other, "you just push the button and this little thing transfers the memories over to the Pokémon in the Pokéball, of course you have to have the Pokémon train with the move some after to really get the new move down, but that's simple"

Mason nodded, that did make sense, and he was starting to put together why he'd never heard about it all in the anime, it all must have been because of the time difference, in the anime everything started when Ash was ten, but this was five years after that, it all must have happened in those years

"So this is all part of the Inter-regional thing you mentioned before?" Mason asked wanting to learn more, he'd definitely have to do some looking into this after, he hadn't heard anything about this back in Viridian or Pewter.

Gary nodded as he put his TMs away, "yeah, it's been going on two years now, the Technical machines were just the first part. My gramps has been in talks with many other professors from the other regions, right now it's only Kanto, Jhoto, Hoenn and Sinnoh who are part of it. They've only just been getting around to exchanging some data, the leagues have been rather protective of the data, knowledge is power after all, but the Technical machines were the first big breakthrough that came out of it all. Gramps told me that there's even talks about some inter-regional exchanges of Pokémon species to happen in the next couple of months to help expand the trust."

"That sounds amazing, just think about the rare Pokémon," Mason said with a smirk, this was sounding even better by the minute.

Gary smirked, "yeah, it's going to start with the safari zones, trainers will be allowed to see the Pokémon but not catch them, at least for a while, the leagues don't want to limit the numbers and want the populations to grow some before they start to release them out into various areas, the Rangers will monitor the numbers from there"

Mason felt his heart skip a beat, 'Rangers' he thought to himself and swallowed as he realised he really needed to do a lot more looking into just how this world was different from the anime and games. He didn't know why it hadn't occurred to him to do so before now, it really shouldn't have surprised him that there was so much more to this world than just what the anime and games showed. True enough he had heard of the rangers in the anime and he had even played the games of them a time or two but the mention of them made him realise that he really needed to take some time and do some research into things, he needed more information.