Rubber Trainer
900 years ago an event caused a massive outburst of energy over a continent that would be called Abend by the human inhabitants. The humans that lived saw something incredible happen as a result of that event. The sheer amount of energy that was released from the event caused many fruits, vegetables and other plants to mutate into what is now known as devil fruits. These devil fruits granted extraordinary power to those that ate them at the cost of being unable to swim. So now 900 years later a boy name Ash Ketchum discovers just how odd some of those devil fruits can be. Now Ash was the youngest of three children and the only one without any devil fruit powers. His older brother Red had the Mera Mera no mi while his sister Green had the Zuma Zuma no mi, his father had the Chi Chi no mi and finally, his mother was a stay-at-home mom who was an Umbreon with the Hito Hito no mi.
That was the case until Ash found one while exploring the forest, he found a fruit that was purple in color and had swirls on it and he immediately knew that it was a devil fruit of some kind. Ash ate it on the spot and then made the trek back home. Looking it up in an encyclopedia he found it was the Gomu Gomu no mi and for the next few years trained his ass off to master it until when he finally turned 18 years old and was ready to sail to foreign shores to see the world like he always wanted to.
"Finally made it" Ash smiled as he pushed his small boat onto the beach. He heard about Kanto from his uncle who was also an explorer and had told him all that he knew about it. Ash also said that being a Pokémon trainer was the best way to do it. Now in order to become one, he would have to go to Pallet Town and meet someone called Professor Oak. He would be the one to talk to in order to become a Pokémon trainer as his uncle didn't know the requirements to become one.
"Well hopefully it isn't too far of a trek to get to Pallet Town," Ash said as he started his journey to Pallet Town. Thankfully his uncle had given him a map of Kanto and had given him pretty detailed instructions on how to get to Pallet Town.
A few days later Ash could see Pallet Town in the distance and walking up to and through it he could see it was a pretty small settlement when he saw a two-story white building with a large fenced-up area next to it. Ash assumed that this was the esteemed professor's house. Another thing he noticed as that the houses in this town were all spaced out as well with a gravel road leading out of the town.
"Well might as well enter," Ash said to himself. He walked up the stairs leading to Oak's house and rang the doorbell. He heard feet getting closer to the door until the person he assumed was Professor Oak opened the door.
"Can I help you?" Oak asked.
"Yeah, I was told to come to you in order to become a Pokémon trainer," Ash explained.
"Ah, I see well did you take the exam?" Professor Oak asked.
"Exam?" Ash seemed confused.
"In order to get your starter Pokémon you need to pass the exam with at least an 80% score" Professor Oak explained.
"Ok so how do you take the exam?" Ash asked.
"Well we have one coming up in 3 months I suggest you go back home and study" Oak sighed.
"Well, what does the exam entail" Ash needed to know what he had to study.
"We have a survival practical to see if you have what it takes to live in the wild. There's a written portion and finally a mock battle that you don't necessarily have to pass as long as you demonstrate that you can handle yourself and keep your cool." Oak went into detail about what was on the exam.
"Well I don't have any place to sleep since I came from overseas," Ash said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Oh, and where do you come from?" Oak inquired.
"Abend" Ash replied.
"Never heard of it" Oak answered.
"We keep to ourselves" Ash sighed.
"Ah well, I have an extra room that you can stay in as you study, and if you want you can help with the Pokémon and other stuff around the lab. It will great experience and you'll gain practical experience for the exam." Professor Oak smiled.
"Sure and thanks a lot" Ash bowed respectfully.
"Well then follow me and I'll show you to your room" Oak then led Ash to his room. Ash then put his stuff down and looked around the room and decided to lay in bed. After getting comfortable Ash was led to the dining room where other scientists were and as well as what looked like a younger version of Oak and some random kid.
"Everyone this is sorry I didn't catch your name," Oak said sheepishly.
"I'm Ash Ketchum and it's nice to meet you" Ash bowed again as in Abend it was courteous to bow as it was seen as a sign of respect, especially with those you never met before.
"He's going to be staying here while he studies for the exam in 3 months" Oak explained.
"So why don't you tell us more about yourself," Oak said.
"Well, I'm from Abend as well as being 18 years old. I like the outdoors and training as well as eating. Finally, I ate the Gomu Gomu no mi" Ash explained. But everyone else seemed to be very confused.
"Sorry, but you did a what?" The mini-Oak asked.
"I ate the Gomu Gomu no mi" Ash replied as if he expected the knowledge of Devil Fruits to be common knowledge.
"And that is a what now" A brown-haired woman inquired.
"My apologies but do you all not know about Devil Fruits?" Ash clarified and all he got was a head shake indicating that they had never heard about them before.
"Well then you probably won't believe but I'll explain then demonstrate. Devil Fruits are various plants that appeared 900 years ago they give a superpower basically in exchange for being unable to swim. Mine is a paramecia type that turned my body into rubber, here I'll show you hold my hand" Ash instructed Oak to do and to their shock, his arm stretched and bounced like a rubber band as he walked into the next room.
"Well I'll be darned how have I never heard of these devil fruits" Professor Oak mused to himself.
"Ash how many of these devil fruits are there," The brown-haired woman asked as Ash walked back into the room.
"Hundreds now there are three types and every devil fruit falls into one of these three categories. Now the first is Paramecia and these are the most common. Now basically they grant you power but you can't turn into a Pokémon like a Zoan type nor can you transform into a natural element like Logia. Mine is a perfect example of a Paramecia-type devil fruit. Second, are Zoans and they allow you to turn into a Pokémon and use all the move sets that they can use as well as speak to Pokémon. An example would be the Ryuu Ryuu no mi model Arceus. Now zoans have the normal type and the legendary type with the legendary type allowing you the power to transform and use the move set of a legendary Pokémon. Thirdly the Logia and arguably the most powerful type, this allows you the power of a natural element. An example of one would be my sister who ate the Zuma Zuma no mi which gives her the power to create and transform herself into plasma. These devil fruits also have intangibility as long as it's not an elemental weakness, sea prism stone, Haki, or standing water." Ash finished his long-winded explanation of devil fruits.
Oak who also had a Gardevoir was skeptical at first but then was surprised and scared shitless after looking through Ash's mind and seeing the sheer destructible power that these devil fruits had. It scared her that humans had access to such power and the fact she never heard of these devil fruits before. Oak the others listened and seeing Ash's arms stretch like a rubber band they really couldn't disprove his explanation and frankly when he mentioned the legendary zoan-type devil fruits they were surprised.
"Oh and one more thing my biological mom is an Umbreon that ate the Hito Hito no mi. A zoan type devil fruit that gave her the powers of a human as well as certain human bodily characteristics" Ash tried to go into some detail without being explicit. Gardevoir shuddered at the thought, there's no way in hell would she ever eat that devil fruit.
"So what you a hybrid" The mini-Oak scoffed.
"I guess, here's a picture" Ash pulled one out, and sure enough a bipedal female Umbreon was in it.
"Well this has been very informative but we need some time to digest this information. Why don't you wait in the next room" Oak smiled as Ash bowed and left.
"Gardevoir, I assume he's telling the truth," Oak asked. Gardevoir then showed everyone the sheer power of the devil fruits through Ash's eyes and it was eye-opening.
After some time discussing devil fruits it was decided that Ash needed to keep them a secret and everyone else in the room also agreed to secrecy and to never reveal it. So after motioning Ash into the room they then had a talk.
"Ash, I need you to promise to not tell people about the devil fruits" Oak demanded.
"I will" Ash agreed.
"Thank you now we can start getting you ready for the exam" Oak proclaimed.
The next day at the dining table
"Ok so now tell me what you know about Pokémon typing?" Oak quizzed Ash to see what he already knew.
"Each type as something they are weak to, strong against and other types are either neutral or may have a slight advantage or disadvantage. However you should never rely completely on typing alone as there are ways to navigate around typing matchups" Ash explained as back home there were tournaments for Pokémon to participate in that was separate from the humans. His mom had taught him about type matchups but never went into too much detail.
"Do you know about the types strengths and weaknesses?" Oak asked.
"A very basic idea but other than that I'm completely clueless" Ash admitted.
"Ah well that's ok we are learning so tell me what you do know?" Oak inquired. Ash then went into a basic overview of type matchups but nothing to detailed as he had a limited knowledge.
"Ah so at least you have a basic overview on the topic" Oak mused while stroking his chin.
"Yeah, my mom gave me a basic rundown" Ash admitted.
"Well then let's begin then follow me" Oak then walked off with Ash quickly followed.
"Now to begin each Pokémon has a type they are weak, strong, and neutral against. For example, grass types are strong against water types but are weak against fire types with electric types do some damage but not a whole lot." Oak briefly explained while Ash nodded and took notes. This went on and on with Professor Oak quizzing Ash periodically while helping around the ranch and getting practical experience with both wild and trained Pokémon while learning all about Pokémon. To say the least this was an eye-opener as he never realized how little he knew about Pokémon in general but he was studying his butt off to learn everything he could. Ash also learned about Oak's grandson Gary and Blue and one of his assistants by the name of Delia had a son named Ritchie who had a rivalry with Gary. It was clear to Ash from the get-go that Ritchie was pretty slow when it came to Pokémon knowledge with Gary being incredibly knowledgeable when it came to Pokémon. Ash did his best to make friends with them which came pretty easy with both of them being very interested in Ash's rubber body and one day they would see that Ash also had incredible strength.
"So Ash tells me about your family and the Hito Hito no mi," Gary said.
"Sure my mom is an Umbreon that ate the Hito Hito no mi making me a human with some Pokémon DNA in my veins" Ash stated. So he began describing how over the 900 years that devil fruits have been on the planet many Pokémon have eaten the Hito Hito no mi and some have mated with humans creating humans with Pokémon DNA in them created hybrids. Ash and his siblings were such beings with senses far more sensitive than regular humans but not on par with regular Pokémon. It was quite an interesting discussion for Ash as Gary and Ritchie listened with great interest as there were so many questions about devil fruits but even Ash only knew a mere fraction of knowledge about devil fruits. There were so many things that not even Ash could answer for not even he knew the answers. It facilitated a very productive discussion with Ash trying to answer what he could. But they got interrupted by the arrival of some very important people.
"Hey it's Lance and the Elite Four" They heard someone yell.
"Who?" Ash asked confused.