Author's Note: So one of my guest reviews said it felt like I glossed over some battles. That's fair for that third chapter. I got a bit fatigued but still wanted to publish it that night. Going forward if I feel like that I'll not post and will do one extra writing session to make sure I flesh them out!

Chapter 5: Deviation

Every single participating pokemon at least had a passable Brick Break down by lunch the next day when Primeape achieved what you could easily call early mastery of the technique.

The shared excitement between he and Ash as they jumped up and down in celebration really vindicated my theory on how the two of them could develop a stronger bond more quickly.

"It's really impressive," I remarked to Brock as they continued to dance around circling the shattered boulder.

"The technique?" The gym leader questioned me, but I shook my head.

"How easily he can bond with the most ornery and stubborn pokemon of any type!"

Brock blinked, as if he had never noticed before, and then he chuckled.

"You know what? Ash is so dense, stubborn, and has so little academic knowledge that it slipped past me somehow, but you're right! That's a strange charisma to the kid, he seems to draw friends, enemies, danger, and excitement to himself like a magnet. And it goes double for pokemon!"

"If we work to fill in some of those academic gaps with some hands on learning on the subjects he could go far," I of course had some foreknowledge of Ash's potential, but even with just the minimum advice and help I'd given him the boy had already begun to shine all the brighter with that potential.

"It's a little embarrassing that he didn't start out knowing at least most of the common type match-ups," Misty commented to us as she came over to join the conversation.

Brock let out a deeper laugh at that, "Yeah, tossing Pikachu at my onix was...an interesting choice. But his team at the time was all disadvantaged I'm pretty sure."

I winced, remembering that episode, "Yeah that can't have been a pretty fight."

"So do you really think he's ready for Lt. Surge?" Misty asked.

I nodded, "At least at the three badge level. He's got a solid Brick Break on Pikachu as well as Primeape, and Charmander and Bulbasaur should give him the safety net he would need to defeat Surge's normal three-badge team."

"And if Surge demands a one-on-one with that raichu you mentioned?"

I shrugged, "That would likely be if Ash offended him, and we worked on Pikachu's speed enough in conjunction with Brick Break that I think he could squeak out a victory."

It had taken Ash barely an extra day of training to beat that raichu in the show, so I was assuming just a little bit but the assumption was at least supported.

However, the more I started changing by these strangely coincidental meetings with Ash, the more worried I became.

Previously I had kind of assumed I could skate by as a character of the day or occasional recurring character.

Now though...I was unsure if I'd be able to avoid major Team Rocket encounters and worst of all...movie events.

I did not have a plan for surviving Mewtwo as things currently stood. Other than hoping Ash pulled through like canon.

But with Jesse and James being...still weak but at least not flamboyantly idiotic I was unsure if Mewtwo would be as merciful as in canon from the get go.

I didn't think I was in a grimdark interpretation, but I was definitely in a mildly more realistic than either show or games.

Pokemon were more difficult to relate to, harder to train up to high levels, life in the true wilds was according to the PokeNet way more dangerous than life on the travelled routes that are what we saw in the games and most of the show episodes. Team Rocket attacks had actually killed people and pokemon from what I could tell. In fact I was fairly certain there was a ghost of a marowak over in Lavender now from a report I had seen on poaching around Rock Tunnel.

That meant it was dangerous not just for me, but also perhaps characters...no not characters, people, that I associated with having plot armor.

I was part of this world now and events were happening in real time, not on a tv screen being predetermined.

During my musings Ash and Primeape had finally calmed down and strode over both grinning widely.

Or as much as one could tell through Primeape's fur blocking his expression.

"Well, Primeape won the buffet, huh?"

Misty, Brock, and I all laughed at Ash's declaration.

"Yeah, let's get everyone over to the restaurant. Everyone gets a plate, but Primeape gets the all-he-can-eat!"

As we ate for the next hour my mind was a whirlwind of ideas and concepts for how I could hold up against Mewtwo for at least a little bit.

All of them involved me leaving Kanto for a month or two. Luckily with my parents being new money I could probably pull it off. But I'd have to accelerate my plans for my team to be able to catch the pokemon I needed to. I could likely bum the location of the Moon Stone off of Ash. Finding an Ice Stone might be difficult but I could start putting feelers out with some of the VIPs that I knew would be on the SS Anne. I definitely could get Alexei to evolve into a piloswine by the time I needed to take the trip. And a Metal Coat...well I had some ideas for building one if I couldn't get my hands on one the normal way.

That allowed me everyone except Alberich and possibly Artagnan evolved before I took a training and hunting trip. Which would allow me to capture the dark and ghost sub-typed pokemon I needed to hold even a hope against Mewtwo.

In all honesty I'd already been considering this trip, just previously I'd planned to do it after the Conference. Try and build myself up a team worthy of Ace, gym leading, or maybe even an Elite Four invite.

But with the likelihood of a New Island invite in my future...I needed to accelerate every single plan I could possibly think of that would strengthen my team. And protect me from psychics.

"So, Isaac," Brock asked casually over our meal, "Why don't you have a fossil pokemon? Your dad does run the revival research, right?"

I nodded, "It's a preference thing. I want an aerodactyl or one of the foreign possibilities. The League literally won't let anyone below Ace level attempt to tame a revived aerodactyl. So my options are: become an Ace Trainer or better, or go on a paleontology expedition elsewhere. I'm leaning towards the second option, heavily considering Unova for that so that I can combine it with looking into some ruins for some of the interesting pokemon that fall under my specialty out there."

"They have some pretty powerful rock, ground, and steel types out there if I remember correctly. It's a long trip though, you have to fly in a plane or take one of the longest and roughest sea voyages out there."

"It would be totally worth it though!" I enthused, "Krookodile, golurk, bisharp, durant, and escavalier would all give me defenses against psychics, which I am lacking at the moment. Excadrill and ferrothorn both have amazing capabilities when combined with team members I already have, and it looks like one of the fossils out there may be a large sea-turtle type of pokemon. Which could hopefully give me more aquatic mobility. I love Huck, he's the sweetest pokemon in the world, but he's not built for speed at all."

"I have to say, that was a really deep self-analysis. I didn't previously have a great opinion of Pokemon Tech, but if they produce more trainers like you…"

I laughed out loud, "No, Brock, the majority of my peers are the trust-fund rich kids you saw lording their status over Ash before I interrupted. Most are pressured to switch in their final years out of the League Track and into something else so they won't embarrass the school at the Conference. That's how you'll see one or two decently talented alumni at the Conference each year and none of the entitled brats for the most part."

Misty was a bit confused by how I referred to my peers however, "Uh...Isaac...haven't you paid for like...all of this? And got invited by name to the SS Anne because of your dad?"

I shrugged, "Yeah but that's all new money from the last few years since the fossil revival panned out. I started off at Tech as a scholarship student. Actually really pissed them off that they couldn't milk my parents for money until the initial period of the scholarship ran out and they were able to reassess my family's 'need'."

"If I had money like that I'd definitely eat like this all the time!" Ash interjected as he and Primeape scarfed down multiple plates side-by-side.

"Anything else you can think of to do with it, Ash?" I replied, laughing through my response.

He tapped his forehead, deep in thought, before poking his finger into the air as if he had had a revelation.

"A really comfy tent!"

Misty fell out of her seat as Brock and I broke down in laughter so intense we teared up.

Ash Ketchum had no use for mansions, for boats, for private planes, or for luxury cars. Ash Ketchum's heart was sold to the open road and the path to becoming a Pokemon Master.

And there was something in that determination, that surety, that universal constant that even though the boy was so much younger than me, in both lives, I felt the anxiety about the future catastrophic events ebb just a little.